Did you know that the EU runs our elections now? You probably didn’t. The politicians know we hate the EU and so they hide their influence. The Observer reports today that our next GE will be illegal under EU law unless we give the right to vote to prisoners. They have decided that blanket bans on prisoners voting are a breach of human rights.
What are the government to do? If they change the law, the Tories won’t let them forget it. Both the party and the right wing press will hound them with the charge they are selling out to Europe. If they don’t do anything, how long before a prisoner takes a case to the European Court of Federalism (or European Court of Human Rights, as it likes to be known)?
It will be very interesting to see what happens if the government tries to change the law. What will the Tories do? And what about the eurosceptic Labour back-benchers? It’s possible such legislation could be rejected by the house. In which case we would see real evidence that the Tories are going to redraw our relationship with Europe. Cameron could whip his MPs to reject any such legislation. He would thus leave his party – if they win the next election – facing a court case in the EU, and the obligation to renegotiate our membership of that organisation.
EU007 