Civic death!

In an article titled ‘Deny prisoners the vote and we undermine our democracy’ in the 7 February 2011 edition of The Daily Telegraph, Mary Riddell told us this:

“As Dr Peter Selby, former bishop to HM Prisons, has said, disfranchising prisoners makes them 'outlaws’.”

My word, we must be further down the PC Road than I realised. Here's me thinking prisoners were still outlaws when, all the time, the Bishops and the media darlings have known they were nothing of the kind! You learn something new every day, don't you?

“Prison deprives inmates of their liberty, not their citizenship.”

Prison should punish, shouldn't it? Deprivation of citizenship should be part of the punishment, along with, in my opinion, sauce sandwiches (as opposed to three course meals) for breakfast, dinner and tea; chain gangs; coporal punishment and the rack.

“Imposing a form of civic death on the marginalised will make them less fit to rejoin society.'“

'CIVIC DEATH!' B***er me, Mary! If that's not banner-headline-in-The-Sun type hyperbole x 10, I don't know what is!

“As the Canadian Supreme Court has stated, denying prisoners the vote undermines the legitimacy of government.”

And the constituency that makes up the Canadian Supreme Court would be? More like you than me, Mary? More like Bishop Selby than Superman, Sherlock Holmes, Nipper Reade or Albert Pierrepoint? A bit politically correct perhaps? A bit pity-the-poor-criminal and to hell with the criminalised majority, would you say?

“There is a strong moral case for lifting the ban.”

I think there's a 'strong moral case' for telling the outlaws-no-longer people where you live, Mary. Just so that, at some point in the not to distant future, they can pop round and thank you in person for all your support.