Lined up to vote

David Cameron, a supposedly intelligent person, recently stated that he felt sick at the thought of prisoners voting in elections. This situation arises as a recent court case ruled that it broke prisoner’s rights not to be allowed to vote.

As a result most of the right-wing newspapers have got very excited. Many traditional Conservative voters are spending sleepless nights worrying about this issue.

Benefits to society if prisoners vote

One of the main reasons that many people are in prison is but they lack civic responsibility. Often their background and upbringing has alienated them from mainstream society. The majority of prisoners have poor education standards, poor reading standards and have probably moved within anti-establishment circles.

Surely giving all prisoners the vote, except those that have committed electoral fraud, would at least partially address this situation. It would give some prisoners an awareness of the wider outside world. It would also give prison education authorities the chance to teach civil responsibility, but without the preaching.

The loss of liberty is the punishment

The prisoner’s punishment is their loss of liberty. They should be given the opportunity to reflect on their lives with the hope that they would be able to see a better life for themselves.

These childish attempts to block

These childish attempts to block what seems a sensible idea, well it is in the rest of Europe, because the newspaper, Daily Mail, cynically gets its reader’s knickers in a twist. It’s proprietors having a clear anti-Europe and anti-European Court of Human Rights agenda.

Britain out on a limb

Yet again another attack on the European Court of Human Rights. We seem to be the only country out of the 42 signatories, including Russia, who seem to have a serious problem with the court.

This problem with prisoner’s right to vote demonstrates the problem the British political class and Civil Service have with Europe. They know what is happening in Europe, but they do no forward planning and wait until the last moment to react.

Then everything has to be done in a rush and it is easier to blame Europe rather than admit their own incompetence. Europe is the scapegoat for much of the inadeqacies of the ‘Westminster Village’.

In the case of prisoner voting rights there had to be top politicians and top civil servants who understood the problem. They could have prepared a gradual implementation of the voting rights many, many years ago.

As it is the debate will be highly charged, not all through properly and we will end up with yet another badly thought through compromise. This in turn will cause more court cases, patch ups, political arguments and gradual modifications to the voting rights, with a system that is is inferior to that of most of Europe, (as usual).

Conclusion

I believe that all prisoners with the exception of those convicted of electoral fraud to be allowed to vote. This is a good way to engage with prisoners in getting them to think about the wider society.

In particular I think the longer term prisoners should be given the vote as this gives them some link with society.

I can accept that as additional punishment some people, such as child murderers or paedophiles, could be to take away their vote. But, this should only be done in exceptional circumstances.

The reality is that I suspect that few prisoners will actually take the opportunity to cast their votes. But for some it could start them taking up an interest in politics and this could help them cope on the outside.

What do you think?

What are your views on this?

Overview:

Vince Cable told two undercover reporters, Holly Watt and Laura Roberts, from the Daily Telegraph: that there is an internal war inside the Conservative/ LibDem coalition; that if he used his nuclear option, resigning, the coalition will fall; and that he was also at war with Murdoch’s News Corporation over their intention to take complete control of the Sky broadcasting network.

As a result of Cable’s mistake,  the resultant publicity, and the political fall out,  it is almost certain that Rupert Murdoch will gain control and completely dominate Britain’s media, which in turn will effectively make him the most powerful man in the country.

The mistake

Dr Vincent Cable operates an open surgery for his constituents on Friday evenings.  Two journalists, Holly Watt and Laura Roberts, turned up pretending to be constituents, who were active Liberal Democratic supporters concerned about child allowance.  They had a hidden microphone.

Success within the Coalition

He told them ‘there is a constant battle going on behind the scenes’.  He described his battle over immigration caps as a victory and that he was arguing with Nick Clegg for a ‘very tough approach’ to bank bonuses, but ‘our Conservative friends don’t want to do that.’

He claims victories on civil liberties issues,questions over Europe, lifting tax thresholds, lifting people out of tax and raising the capital gains tax threshold.

He argued that the coalition was very professional and th’e Cabinet does function as a Cabinet, in the way it is supposed to in the textbooks. We debate things across the table.’

Maoist approach of the Conservatives

However, he stated: ‘There is a kind of Maoist revolution happening in a lot of areas like the health service, local government, reform, all this kind of stuff, which is in danger of getting out of control. We are trying to do too many things, actually.

Some of them are Lib Dem inspired, but a lot of it is Tory inspired. The problem is not that they are Tory-inspired, but that they haven’t thought them through. We should be putting a brake on it.’

Nuclear Option

He complained: ‘They had made a pledge not to do anything about universal child benefit. Cameron had personally pledged not to do it, so they had to bite this bullet and, you know, because they were going to have to reduce universal benefit, they haven’t yet done the winter fuel payments, but that’s coming, I think.’

He was clearly upset by some of the actions of the government and told the journalists that sometimes it was like fighting in a war.  He said that he had to choose which battles to fight.

He said he had the nuclear option, to resign, but that would bring down the coalition and government.

His conflict with the Murdoch BSkyB bid

Stupidly  he also said that he had declared war with Rupert Murdoch. This was serious as part of his role as Business Secretary is to make the final decision on whether Murdoch’s News Corporation can buy a 100% of the shares of BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster.

The Political Fallout

Despite demands that he resign – he has not.  He has been reprimanded and has lost control of any decision regarding media.

Yesterday he was respected as a politician, despite his role in increasing student tuition fees.  Today he has lost much of that respect. He will not be able to argue his case as strongly in cabinet.

On a wider issue the fact he has not been fired is angering many Conservative backbench MPs, who feel that the LibDems have too much power within the government.  This will cause a lot of problems for David Cameron, who is only tolerated by many factions within the party.

The Future for Vince Cable

I personally do not see him surviving that long.  I think over Christmas the backbench revolt will get stronger and the Murdoch press will now being scrapping up any piece of dirt they can find to undermine him.

The BSkyB bid

The bid will now be handled by Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary.  He appears to be in the inner circle of David Cameron’s political friends and will be friendly to the Murdoch bid.

My thoughts

Sadly there is no way now that Vince Cable’s political career is going to end well.  He is doomed to be seen:

• as the person who cut 80% of the teaching budgets of universities to be replaced by a massive increase in student tuition fees.
• as a person that has strongly supported policies, that prior to the election, he stated did not make much sense.
• and as incompetent by talking to the two journalists.

Personally I think he should resign and try and take the LibDems out of the coalition.  The party would have more bargaining power to stop the the more extreme policies of the Conservatives or to force a general election.

the Lib Dem grave yard

I wrote the following comment in the Independent two days ago.

The idea of the LibDems as human shields seems to have spread.  Ed Milliband used the term in the Tuition Fee debate and Alastair Cambell is using it on his blog.

Start of Comment
Saddam used human shields.

Cameron and Osborne didn’t have to. With a little power bribe they can have the entire LibDem leadership as shields for tuition fees and cuts.

‘We’ll give you lots of minister’s posts.’ patronises Cameron – the ones that are going to get the big hits with the cuts.

Nick Clegg was set up in the negotiations to form the coalition. The proposed cuts are far greater than was in the Tory manifesto as are many of the policies.

‘Blame the LibDems’ Osborne shouts whacking his axe down on yet another part the economy.

The LibDems would have had far more power by refusing to join up with the Eton Blue roadshow.

Still Nick Clegg you must now resigned to your fate – the man who destroyed the Liberals. There again you could resign.

End of Comment

Update 1

I note Ed Milliband stated the the LibDems were being used as human shields in the tuition debate last night. So I’m a political speech writer now. Great.

Update 2

Drat – I’ve suddenly found another post about a month ago with the same idea.  Well for a few hours I thought I was the original thinker.

Just to live up to the geek fantasy of Sweden – Julian Assange did actually have sex with two different women. He treated both badly, took stupid sexual risks, but was he a rapist and sexual predator

The story

Miss A: The condom broke with the first one and he’s accused of deliberately making a hole in it. The day after this event Miss A took to him to a barbecue.

Miss W: The next day he flirted with a woman, Miss W, at a meeting. They went to the cinema, where she gave him a blowjob. They then went to bed in her apartment and had consensual sex in the evening.

He then made love to her in the morning, when she claims to have been asleep. This is the rape allegation.

A few days later Miss A went to see Miss W. They decided that Julian Assange had deliberately had unprotected sex with the both of them. They went to the police to see if they could force him to have an Aids test.

This quickly moved on to the rape and other charges.

Conspiracy 1: American involvement. Miss A is researching Cuba post Castro – which is claimed to support the right wing America viewpoint.  There is suggestion that she might be an American agent, pretending to be left wing.

Miss W has an American boyfriend.

Theory: the Swedish government is working as an agent for the Americans.

Conspiracy 2: Swedish government involvement.

Julian Assange had planned to live in Sweden and set up wikileaks in the country. This would have caused the Swedish government a lot of hassle, from the Americans, and embarrassment, from all those mentioned in the leaks.

This would be a good way of neutralising the affects of wikileaks.  However against this is the fact that the Swedish police have issued a European arrest warrant.  To keep Julian

Conspiracy 3: Miss A is a militant feminist

This would be good way to build her reputation and at the same time harm the reputation of a media celebrity.  This is a bit of a weird explanation.

She seemed to be enjoying his company until she found out about Miss W.

Conspiracy 4:  Julian Assange had dumped Miss A

He certainly had had his evil way and with her.  She was certainly annoyed.

It is probable that her incentive to visit Miss W, someone she didn’t know, was to find out what was going on.  A possibility that she’s now taking revenge.

Possibility 5:  They’re groupies off to make a quick buck.

Erm I don’t think so.  Rock stars, footballers yes.  But this doesn’t happen to computer geeks.

Possibility 6:  The allegations are true.

In my school’s sixth form there was a guy who boasted that he put a pin prick in condoms when sleeping with his girlfriend. This information was relayed to the girl’s rather large, rugby playing brother.

Boyfriend then spent a few uncomfortable nights in hospital.

If this is true then  Julian Assange is a complete bastard.  However this sort of behaviour would surely have surfaced in the media by now if it were true.  So I discount it.

Possibility 7:  Miss A’s perspective is flawed.

Julian Assange did treat Miss A quite badly by going off and then sleeping with Miss W.  I can see Miss A getting rather upset, (That’s English English for extremely angry).

I am betting that when she visited Miss W the latter expressed  her fears of catching Aids as a result of the unprotected sex.

Her feminist standpoint would make her instinctively critical of men and she might imply that Julian Assange’s callous crass, thoughtless, exploitative behaviour had a more sinister motive.

This could then lead ardent feminist Miss A to suspect that the split condom was deliberate, even though it is a relatively common problem.

A conversation with the police and before you know where you are there are rape and sexual assault charges.

This is my bet on what really happened.

To sum up

Any of the above could have happened.  Some options are more likely than others.

I suspect there are political games being played behind the scenes.  Not big politics, but the boring day to day in-house politics of the Swedish prosecutors office.

I’m annoyed

I am annoyed with the British authorities.  Julian Assange has been in contact with the British police and the Swedish prosecutors office throughout the whole of this crisis.

Yes – he should have been arrested because of the European arrest warrant.

No – he should not be in Brixton Prison today.  He does not appear to be a flight risk.

I’m also annoyed with  Julian Assange.  He could have handled the situation with the two women much better, with more consideration and with less taking of stupid sexual risks.

Update

The latest report from the UK newspaper, the Guardian, which I believe is accurate, suggests that if Julian Assagne, was not so arrogant and had taken the requested  STI and HIV tests then the matter would not have been taken to the police or become public knowledge.

However

His work is important.  The revelations are opening the eyes of the public to the games politicians play.  I hope this matter gets sorted out soon so that the strip tease of documents keeps on appearing.

Links

Image:  Flickr: R_SH

The latest technology - MOD supplies

At the start of the Iraq war only one of the three army bases had enough toilet rolls, never mind other equipment.

In the Falklands War most troops spent hundreds on pounds of their own money on decent sleeping bags and other cold weather kit.

We are close to spending billions on upgrading Trident – a weapons system we cannot use without permission from the Americans. The main purpose of this system is two fold – the reward American defence contractors, (So the President will be nice to us.), and keep our place in the Security Council – ie to maintain our status against the French and allow the Prime Minister to go to international power lunches.

What we don’t seem to be able to do is to provide our troops with protective clothing, decent communications and even basics, such as boots that don’t melt in the heat.

We also do not have enough troops. To be highly effective the army needs shorter tours of duty to allow recovery and retraining.  It needs more troops in places like Afghanistan to consolidate gains against the Taliban.

We, I really mean they, also urgently need more helicopters.

Against pirates a number of small, but fast boats would seem more effective than large boats – though I accept that some air support would be useful.

Are we going to be in a major war? Russia is still militaristic – though here well equipped troops on the ground would seem to be the most effective in an invasion of Europe.

China and America. I think is possible, but Britain is about as far away from this conflict zone and we would be smart to stay out of it.

So let’s accept that we are a small country.

Less toys for the Admirals and Air Commodores.

More troops, more troop training, better equipment for the troops and let’s face it this will also reduce the unemployment rate and boost local economies.

The fundamental flaw with education policy after the election is that politicians will get in.

Talking to a couple of teachers, both now thinking of leaving, is which is worse a Labour win – with ‘a policy a day’ Balls or a Cameron government that is made of people, who have seen public schools, (that is the state run places), but have not been actually gone to them, except on official visits, and will obviously send their children to private schools.

The present set of fantastic initiatives, which are mainly designed to build the career of a minister, or as part of the government PR of we are doing a good job and such boo-hoo to the opposition.

The emphasis has been on buildings, computers, hardware and photo opportunities.

The emphasis should be on quality of staff, quality of teaching and a resultant number of qualified, confident students, with self awareness and aspirations.

One way to achieve this is not to have a Minister of Education and a Ministry of Education, but allow education to be organised on a local and regional basis. Then at least the voters can easily travel and complain to, or vote out the local politicians when they get it wrong.

To give an example. Cameron’s new scheme

Maths: In maths what is needed for the vast majority of children is someone who can understand the problems kids are having with maths. Someone with a first in maths or physics cannot possibly do this.

Ideal people should be numerate, able to control a class and probably had some life experience, working, bringing up children. Mature students, people changing careers will probably have more to offer than someone just out of university and teacher training.

Most will only need to be able to understand maths up to GCSE level.

The whizz-kids with firsts would only be needed for the higher level A level students.

Secondly:

Cameron’s scheme will only consider graduates from ‘good’ universities. It makes him elitist and the ‘playing fields of Eton’ is now fully justified. What he is really saying is all but a few universities are inferior.

Third:

Cameron has effectively stated that most of the current teachers are inferior.

One last point.

The best teacher I ever had was Mr Powell. He was an ex-sergeant, who had fought with Monty in Africa and was stationed in Palestine after. He had no degree and was trained up under a specialist scheme for ex-military.

Without hitting students or shouting he controlled classes. He knew how to motivate students.

He had us for the entire Friday afternoon. He made a deal with us. The first lesson he would teach us maths. The second lesson we would work through a set of maths exercises and when the entire class had finished those he would go through his war experiences, giving us details of the battles in north Africa, or have discussions, or play word games like hangman.

To make sure we all finished early most of the class would do our maths work at least a week ahead.

We would help the weaker kids and so the entire class by today’s standards was very numerate.

So invest in good teachers not elite teachers.

Only allow ministers to have one idea at the most a year.

American hospitals probably have as many bureaucrats as we do – including the people who check whether you can afford to pay for treatment or throw you out on the street or to the totally under resourced charity hospital. If they do not how come US medical services are twice, three times, five times or even more expensive then Britain and Europe. Check your travel insurance and see how much more expensive it is to go to the states.

About one in five Americans do not have medical insurance and many die, 18,000 in 2002, because of lack of access to health care. And yet America, land of the free, land of opportunity does not believe that 20% of their populations are losers because they’re poor. So let them stay ill, let them starve to pay their medical bills.

But let’s be truthful. These stupid men have an agenda. They need to keep in with the big health lobby throwing millions of dollars at the Republicans to try and stop the Democrats provide health for the poor. We have bureaucrats – they have bureaucrats and the wealthy few, enriching themselves at the expense of the American worker, or the American citizen, paying inflated hospital insurance or being ignored if they can’t afford to pay.

And the other part of the story. All Muslims are terrorists. Sure two misguided individuals, surprisingly qualified doctors, got themselves into a state to become, unfortunately, suicide bombers. Fortunately they were not competent and no one, bar one of them was killed.

The Fox News reporters, (I’m sorry bigoted mouth pieces), are claiming that for some reason America will have to import more doctors to provide universal care. Could not the existing US doctors get off their padded backsides and work that bit harder to provide the support.

The second part of the argument is that they will have to import Muslim doctors to support this new health care. So what? Because we in Britain have had two doctors that have been terrorists? How’s about the thousands, probably tens of thousands of Muslim doctors we’ve had in the country that have saved thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people over the years.

You guys are bigoted, biased racists who should be ashamed to call yourselves journalists. Learn about doing proper research, before you spout, rather than visiting the bar with your local branch of the KKK, with the drinks paid for by US medical corporatations.
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