Prisoners' right to vote?

Jason

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The European Court of Human Rights has ordered the UK government to draw up within six months legislation to give prisoners the vote.

Votes for prisoners were rejected by parliament a few weeks ago - and by an overwhelming majority. This is shaping up as a direct conflict between the United Kingdom as a sovereign state and the ECHR, an institution to which all EU nations belong and which the EU itself may soon be joining direct. Very messy!

The six months is up next Friday. On Thursday the UK parliament will be considering and voting on legislation which - if passed - would give prisoners on short sentences the vote at some unspecified future date. All the indications are that it will be rejected by an overwhelming vote.

Watch this space. :cool:
 

Justin87

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In the US I am considered liberal, but to me if you commit a crime worthy of prison time you lose the right to vote. The EU is so politically correct it is ridiculous

So someone inprisioned for Child Support, Marijuana or a DUI should lose the right to vote?
 

Jason

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@Justin87, in the UK we would not imprison for offenses such as this. We use a lot of "community sentences", usually service in the community (ie work) sometimes with a curfew order and tagging. People serving these sentences can vote.

There's a special issue in the UK where the right to vote is linked with the obligation to serve on a jury - and it is unthinkable for prisoners to do the latter. I suppose legislation could be brought in to decouple the two, but it seems intrusive.
 

dandelion

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When I first heard of this i was surprised that prisoners loose their vote. Why should they? they are in prison because they broke the laws. The laws are made by a parliament voted for by everyone, which has to decide between different views. So the laws do not go the way the minority wants and they end up in jail. Then they loose their right to vote, so next time the issue comes up their views on the right laws get completely ignored? how is this democracy? It seems to be exactly the opposite: if you do not agree with the government then you loose your right to vote it out!

By the way, why isnt this a 'politics' thread? Though its nice to see different faces here.
 

Justin87

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When I first heard of this i was surprised that prisoners loose their vote. Why should they? they are in prison because they broke the laws. The laws are made by a parliament voted for by everyone, which has to decide between different views. So the laws do not go the way the minority wants and they end up in jail. Then they loose their right to vote, so next time the issue comes up their views on the right laws get completely ignored? how is this democracy? It seems to be exactly the opposite: if you do not agree with the government then you loose your right to vote it out!

By the way, why isnt this a 'politics' thread? Though its nice to see different faces here.

Yeah, I definately agree with that. Everyone who breaks a law that takes rights away loses the right to vote on that law and others? I would only approve of striping voting right in the cases of rape, child molestation or murder.
 

Jason

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The "solution" for the moment is that the UK parliament will at some unspecified time have a look at possible legislation for giving prisoners the vote - but there is unlikely to be parliamentary time for this. So the UK will comply with the ECHR requirement to look at legislation without actually ever getting round to it.

If or when it does come to a vote it seems clear that MPs will again reject it - and this is supported by a large majority of people. Quite what happens then is anyone's guess. I suppose the UK will have breached the ECHR ruling.