Prisoners Votes Part 346

To the surprise of no-one the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has refused to even consider the Government's appeal. As Grand Chamber rulings can't be appealed against one can only assume that this was merely a tactic by the Government to buy time.

This case has been a prime example of what happens when unaccountable institutions have power. The ECHR not only is not listening to the wishes of a democratically elected Parliament but is telling that Parliament in effect what laws it should pass and in what time frame:

The court also demanded the right to fix the Parliamentary timetable for introducing the legislation.

If the Government does not bring forward new laws within six months, European judges will begin ordering the payment of an estimated £150million in compensation to killers, rapists and other prisoners.

Tory MP Dominic Raab called it shocking arrogance:

‘It is shocking arrogance for the Strasbourg Court to dismiss the legitimate concerns of Britain’s elected law-makers without even listening to the arguments.

It's hard to disagree. If seeing our elected Parliament bossed around like this by an unaccountable body is not a reason for a revolution then I'm not sure what is.

It'll be interesting to see what Cameron does. I do actually believe Cameron when he says wants to resist this measure. Not because he doesn't want prisoners to have the right to vote - he probably doesn't give two hoots about that - nor does he want to stand up to Europe, however on this deeply unpopular issue he knows, as well as we do, that capitulation will ironically hasten our exit. It's no coincidence that since this subject cropped up last year that UKIP national membership has experienced a very significant increase.

What really makes Cameron 'physically sick' is thought that he may be the one that helps our exit from his beloved EU project.