Voting by Prisoners

Debate between Jack Straw and Ian Davidson

Thursday 10th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davidson]

The distinction between “Not too subtle” and “Too subtle” is too subtle for me, I must confess.

Our system decides who of the guilty should be sent to prison and who should not. That way of subdividing the guilty is perfectly acceptable to me. Those who are deemed to be prisoners have been found to have broken the civic contract that operates between members of society and the society in which they live. I am therefore clear that the vast majority of our people are hostile to prisoners voting.

The second question is this: who decides? I do not think that this is a judicial decision or a legal matter; it is a political decision about who should decide, and I am clear that we in this country should decide who should vote in our elections, rather than somebody external to this country. I was denounced earlier when I called on the Member for Doncaster and Brussels Berlaymont to speak up for Brussels—

[Mr Straw]

Rotherham.

[Mr Davidson]

Rotherham sorry. Again, perhaps I do not know the distinction. When the Member for Rotherham and Brussels Berlaymont, my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr MacShane), was sounding off, I said, “Speak up for Brussels.” His key response was, “Well, it is not physically or geographically in Brussels”—so presumably all my arguments failed. It is not a question of geography though; it is a question of mindset. There is a Brussels mindset, irrespective of where it is physically located, that basically says that European is best and that there is a political elite in Europe that knows better than we do in this country how our country should be run. We have to say, “Up with this we will not put.” Enough is enough. In these circumstances, we ought to be saying that we wish to repatriate these powers, if they need to be repatriated, and if it is a question of ceasing or stamping on judicial activism by the European Court, that is what we need to do.

This issue should not be seen in isolation. Only today, in The Scotsman—so it must be true—the headline read: “Euro rule lets 900 accused escape justice. Judgment over human rights leads to ten prosecutions being dropped every day in Scotland.” The system in Scotland has done us fine for years, but here we have an example of the EU or its various arms, based in Brussels, Strasbourg or somewhere else—someone external—coming in and telling us how we should run our own affairs. As I said before, we ought to be sending the clear message that, “Up with this we will not put”, and that we will reject the influence of the Court as it constantly creeps across the United Kingdom.