“The Government has until 22 November to put forth legislative proposals in order to comply with the court’s rulings on prisoner votes.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 25th October 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Cameron’s depressing announcement means the UK’s reputation will suffer – and it was a snub to his attorney general.”
The Guardian, 24th October 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Prime minister at odds with attorney general as he tells MPs prisoners will never get the vote under his government.”
The Guardian, 24th October 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Prisoners should be given the right to vote in an attempt to help them reintegrate into society, the newly appointed chair of the human rights watchdog has said.”
Daily Telegraph, 19th October 2012
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Revised proposals have been published for the shape of future parliamentary boundaries in England.”
BBC News, 16th October 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“In just a few weeks’ time, 41 individuals will become police and crime commissioners after pitching their vision for cleaning up the streets of England and Wales.”
BBC News, 14th September 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The government has officially withdrawn proposed legislation for elections to the House of Lords after admitting defeat over the plans last month.”
BBC News, 3rd September 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Plans for the first police commissioner elections this autumn have been thrown into fresh disarray with the disclosure that magistrates – who make up a significant number of the candidates – have been banned from standing.”
The Guardian, 9th August 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The government has ‘painted itself into a corner’ over its refusal to grant prisoners’ voting rights, according to Europe’s most senior human rights official.”
The Guardian, 15th July 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Today I am talking to Carl Gardner, ex government lawyer and author of the Head of Legal blog. Downing Street announced the appointment of Lord Neuberger MR as the new President of The United Kingdom Supreme Court – taking over in September when Lord Phillips retires.
We also examine the reform of the House of Lords and the antics of our political masters this week.”
Charon QC, 13th July 2012
Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com
“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.
“Walter Bagehot, in his high Victorian classic The English Constitution, wrote that
the danger of the House of Lords certainly is, that it may never be reformed.
Already the view’s been expressed that if you have a problem with the coalition’s House of Lords Reform Bill then, since the perfect is the enemy of the good, objectively speaking you’re resistant to reform. I don’t hold with that. Further reform is welcome. But those who’d tinker with the constitution need close watching; and bad reform is worse than none.”
Head of Legal, 29th June 2012
Source: www.headoflegal.com
“In a consultation opening today (15 June), the Law Commission is asking which of the rules governing elections and referendums should be reviewed as part of its electoral law reform project. Electoral law in the UK is spread across 25 major statutes. It has become increasingly complex and fragmented and, according to the Commission, needs to be simplified, modernised and rationalised in order to benefit the electorate, administrators, and candidates.”
Law Commission, 15th June 2012
Source: www.lawcommission.justice.gov.uk
“The current Government often complains about a ‘democratic deficit’ in the courts. It seems that ‘unelected judges’ are making important decisions on social policy without any kind of democratic mandate, particularly in controversial human rights cases.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 17th June 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“The High Court is being asked to overturn a council election result after votes for a Labour candidate were wrongly given to a Conservative rival with a similar name.”
BBC News, 13th June 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“There has been some discussion on the UK Human Rights Blog about the judgments in the Hirst v UK/Scoppula v Italy cases, the latest of which was given this week. Simply put, the judgments held (taken together) that the UK’s blanket ban on prisoner voting infringed a prisoner’s voting rights; to comply with the Convention, a ban on prisoner voting would have to involve an exercise of discretion. The growing legal discussion has been learned and has dissected the reasons expressed by the ECtHR. However, from the perspective of a non-specialist human rights lawyer, the discussion seems curiously inverted. It is suggested that the non-lawyer would naturally start an analysis of the competing views not by analysing the caselaw of the ECtHR and asking what room to manoeuvre the latest judgment gives the UK government, but by asking what the court had to say about the recent expression of the will of the people, expressed in the vote in Parliament, which supported the continuation of the ban. It is important for lawyers to address these more general issues for the public to maintain confidence in the system of European human rights law.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 25th May 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Last Tuesday saw the latest episode in the prisoner voting legal saga with the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber’s judgment reversing the Chamber judgment which found Italy’s automatic ban on voting for prisoners serving over 3 years in prison (and a lifetime ban with the possibility of future relief for those sentenced to more than 5 years) in breach of Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 24th May 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“The judges in Europe have exceeded their authority by trying to overrule British law – by David Davis and Jack Straw.”
Daily Telegraph, 24th May 2012
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“David Cameron believes he will be able to resist implementing a ruling from the European court of human rights that prisoners must be granted the right to vote during his time in Downing Street.”
The Guardian, 23rd May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that states must allow for at least some prisoners to vote, but that states have a wide discretion as to deciding which prisoners. This amounts to a retreat on prisoner votes, but certainly no surrender. As I predicted, the court reaffirmed the principles set out in Hirst No. 2, that an automatic and indiscriminate bans breach the European Convention on Human Rights, but also reaffirmed that it was up to states to decide how to remove those indiscriminate bans.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Prisoners in the UK must be given the right to vote, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled, though ministers may determine which inmates should be enfranchised.”
The Guardian, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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