The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed appeals from two prisoners over the right to vote under European Union rules. Convicted murderers Peter Chester and George McGeoch had argued that EU law gave them a right to vote - even though they cannot under British law.
The Supreme Court disagreed, finding British law trumps Euro law.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the Commons that the ruling was "a great victory for common sense".
For an objective view of the Supreme Court's judgement, this is the take of the BBC's legal correspondent Clive Coleman who said: "Critically it ruled that EU law did not provide an individual right to vote, paralleling that recognised by the ECHR. Eligibility under EU law is a matter for national parliaments."
Going forward parliament has to decide if the blanket ban stays or we address prisoner voting for prisoners with as less than 4 year term or less than 6 month term. I see no prospect of a 4 year exemption applying but I could see short term prisoners of less than a month possibly getting a postal vote. There will be a vote on this within a year. I should point out several European countries, the USA and Japan all have a blanket ban. The key point is that all agree it is a matter for the individual countries to decide, not the EU. The question is whether a prison sentence meansd you lose your democratic right as well?
As always I welcome the views of readers / constituents.
