Tuesday, August 12, 2014

So now what?

To nobody's particular surprise, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld its previous judgement that a blanket ban on prisoners' voting rights breaches their human rights and the fact that the UK Parliament voted to continue with that practice is neither here nor there.

However, the court also decided that the prisoners whose human rights have been breached, are not entitled to any financial compensation.

Where do we go from here, one cannot help asking. Will HMG and the Electoral Commission allow prisoners to vote next time round, say, in next year's General Election? There will be no money handed over to them, which is a relief, as we all know whose money that will be. But what happens if those prisoners whose notion of human rights is a little unbalanced will not be allowed to vote next time either?

For those who are interested, here is the judgement in full.

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