Everyone now has rights, but no one seems to have responsibilities
There was a time in this country when a sense of perspective as well as the concept of civil & moral responsibility prevailed. If you behaved within the bounds of the law, it protected you, if you did not, you were incarcerated. These days it seems that felons & criminals have at least as many rights as good honest law abiding subjects, if not more.
135 years ago, a law was introduced that prevented those that were doing a stint at Her Majesties pleasure, from being able to vote. To your humble correspondent this makes perfect sense. After all if you cannot behave in a manner that society deems acceptable, why should you have a say in how it is governed?
Now, in the finest traditions of princess Tony’s Cool Britannia & as yet more proof of the bleeding heart liberalism that threatens to engulf us all, a campaign has started with a view to giving prisoners back the right to vote!
Supporters of the ‘Barred from Voting’ campaign come from across the political spectrum & include, former Tory Home Secretary, Lord Douglas Hurd (I thought he was dead) & Liberal Democrat president Simon Hughes & Labour peer Baroness Kennedy QC (both of whom deserve to be dead).
According to this little nefarious coterie, even criminals have an
"inalienable human right" to vote.
The campaign comes after the European Court of Human Rights (ah, I just knew that the malign hand of Europe would be in here somewhere) ruled that preventing prisoners from voting breached their human rights.
It just makes me ponder if we shouldn’t do as the Liberal Democrats want us to do, & stop incarcerating anyone. After all, these days to slap the bracelets on a rapist probably opens the police officers concerned, to civil litigation because someone’s feeling got hurt.
What the hell ever happened to the rights of the pensioner that has just been mugged by a habitual re-offender. What has happened to the rights of honest bulldogs to walk the streets of this country without fear, without intimidation?
We currently have approx. 62,000 felons incarcerated in this country – so what if the prisons are overcrowded – build some more & fill them with others that cannot conform to a standard that decent people feel is reasonable … & while they are inside, they have no rights … not a single one, until such time as they can figure out what it takes to be a law abiding member of the public.
Comments
The stupid, the lazy and the worthless are already doing a capital job of increasing the value of my vote by not casting theirs, but if prisoners can vote, this posetive trend will be irreprably harmed.
And I know who convicts would vote for too...
Posted by: The Alchemist | April 4, 2005 1:18 PM
In Canada we have the edifying sight of party organizers heading over to the residential looney bin with a bus to pick up those who can be extracted on a day pass.
Of course, you have to remeber that many of these fine citizens are there because they are unable to function on a daily basis without significant assistance, both of the chemical and personal nature.
But, heck, they are very appreciative of a day out, have a pulse, and are over 18. And being handicapped, they need assistance voting.
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Who let's dependants of the state vote anyway?>
Posted by: Fred | April 4, 2005 1:42 PM
Never mind about giving the vote to prisoners, they should bring back a property qualification to vote at all.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 4, 2005 2:29 PM
Lord Douglas Hurd (I thought he was dead)
If only, the bastard's still stealing oxygen from the rest of us.
Posted by: John K | April 4, 2005 8:47 PM
They're (the Democrats) trying to do the same thing in the U.S. - "voter repatriation" they're calling it, and it's a part of an attempt to homogenize (and steamroll) legal structures, of which much is made of the EU and the UN as the models.
I can not see the UN as a model of anything decent or worth emulating, but only that which creates felons in the first place: bribery, theft, pimping, racketeering, etc.
Posted by: -keith in mtn. view | April 5, 2005 1:08 AM