By Daily Mail Comment
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With a single word yesterday, David Cameron seized an opportunity that could work wonders to restore his battered fortunes. That word was: ‘Yes.’
He had been asked if he would give an undertaking not to succumb to the diktat from the European Court of Human Rights, demanding that prisoners should be given the right to vote.
Further, would he stand up for the sovereignty of Parliament and the British people by upholding the huge Commons vote in support of the blanket ban?
Test: The Prime Minister must now prove that he will stand up for the sovereignty of Parliament
Mr Cameron replied: ‘Well, the short answer to that is yes.’ Now his real test begins. For he must prove he meant it.
So, there can be no compromise with the court â€" no clever-Dick move to satisfy the letter of its ruling by giving the vote to the barest minimum of prisoners.
With our sovereignty at stake â€" and an opportunist Labour Party pledging its support â€" the blanket ban must remain. And if the judges then order Mr Cameron to compensate prisoners, he should consign their demands to the bin.
After all, other countries routinely defy Strasbourg’s rulings. Why not Britain?
Clearly, however, it cannot be satisfactory to belong to a court’s jurisdiction, while picking and choosing which of its decisions to obey (especially since the Human Rights Act enshrines the European Convention in British law).
So Mr Cameron must fulfil his pledge to replace the HRA with a British Bill of Rights that spells out Parliament’s supremacy in disputes with Strasbourg.
Yes, this will annoy the Lib Dems. But if Nick Clegg seriously wishes to break away and go to the country on a platform supporting foreign judges against the British people, then good luck to him.
Indeed, the Mail hopes Mr Camer on will acquire a taste for defying his Coalition partners. For on almost every issue â€" with the shining exception of their opposition to secret inquests â€" they are a thorn in the side of effective government.
The great truth on which the Prime Minister must focus is that Strasbourg has declared war on British democracy. And British democracy must win.
Playground racism
Taken at face value, as the BBC took it yesterday, the revelation that more than 87,000 racist incidents were recorded in our schools between 2007 and 2011 suggests a terrifying epidemic of bigotry and hatred among the young.
Look closely, however, and it emerges that many of these were mere exchanges of puerile insults between schoolmates â€" the currency of the playground through the ages.
Playground: Real racism is a vile crime, but there is danger involved in misinterpreting these figures (posed by models)
Yet the children involved have to carry the permanent stain of ‘racist’ on their school records. And all because of the absurd official definition of a racist incident as ‘any situation perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person’.
Real racism â€" mistreating fellow human beings because of their skin colour â€" is a vile crime. Its gravity must not be belittled by attaching this ugly label to children who don’t even know what it means.
Dark arts: Alastair Campbell is the author of the notorious 'dodgy dossier'
Dark arts do pay
Nobody did more to poison the wells of public life than Alastair Campbell, the architect of the News Corp/Labour Party axis, the spin-doctor who made a dark art of manipulating and misleading the media, the author of the notorious ‘dodgy dossier’ and the man who lied Britain’s way to war in Iraq at the behest of his master, Tony Blair.
So how lucky for him, after his kid gloves treatment by the Leveson Inquiry, that he has landed a plum job in PR and lobbying, working for a firm linked to Mr Blair’s murky dealings with Kazakhstan.
As Mr Campbell milks his connections for ca sh, whoever said crime doesn’t pay?
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What makes "dosy dave" and his mates think they know better ? as they say none of them has had proper job with a company that HAS to make a profit to survive The ONLY WAY to get a change is to vote U.K.I.P or B.N.P
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The only chance that Cameron will deliver anything for Britain is if he takes up a paper round.
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This is the chance that Cameron will mess up on AGAIN.------ This will show JUST what sort of PM he really is and wether he is for this Country or for what Brussels and the rest of them tell him to do.---At last this is THE test .--Will he fail or triumph
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British democracy, whats that then? A choice of 3 parties that hate their own people. Hardly a democracy. more a taking turns of dictators and a show of democracy.
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A chance to deliver for Britain !!! This man could not organize a booze up in a brewery, and we can also count his two other wasters the same way
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I wouldn't get your hopes up. Cameron will cave in over prisoner votes as he does with everything, probably giving the excuse of some spurious assurance. No fire in the belly, no intelligence, no vision, no courage.
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Here in Spain, the penal system is tough. But prisoners are allowed to vote as it represents part of their rehabilitation into the responsibilities of being a valued member of the community. As a British taxpayer I resent having to pay for one of the highest prison populations and the highest ratio of re-offending in Europe. Prisoners in the UK should either be forced or encouraged to vote. How on earth you can rehabilitate a criminial into society by withdrawing a basic right of society is absolutely incomprehensible. All you are doing is alienating the criminal still further. He should learn that he has certain, very real responsibilities and duties towards the community. Britain has a punitive, custodial and authoritarian attitude towards prisoners. A few years later and the prisoner is back in the prison, and I am paying for him/her. A prisoner should be integrated into society - you do not get that by stupidly taking away his vote. Medieval! Mindl ess!
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We have them just where they want us - Captain Kirk
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The word is 'no'. No to diktaks from Strasbourg!
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LISTEN! DON'T BE SO GULLIBLE AS TO BELIEVE ANYTHING THIS PRAWN SAYS. WE ALL KNOW WHO'S PULLING HIS STRINGS. LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES. VOTE UKIP AND LETS HAVE A LEADER WE CAN TRUST FOR A CHANGE. VOTE UKIP!
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