Another fight looms for Cameron over votes for prisoners

Prisoner voting is back on the agenda. The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the British government’s appeal and declared that the coalition has six months to draw up proposals to change the law.
 
David Cameron now has to decide whether to ignore the Strasbourg Court or go against the will of his MPs, who voted overwhelmingly to oppose giving prisoners the vote in response to the court’s initial decision. In many ways, ignoring the court is the safer option. Tory MPs aren’t inclined to back down on this issue and if Cameron tried to make them he would create a lot of ill-will and take an awful kicking from the press. On top of this, there’s no enforcement mechanism for the European Court of Human Rights, and the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, confirmed last week that the government was under no domestic legal obligation to implement its judgements.
 
But set against this is how the Liberal Democrats might react to simply ignoring the European Court of Human Rights. Their effective neutering of Cameron’s commission on a British Bill of Rights shows just how strongly Liberal Democrats feel on these issues. Cameron, though, will surely have to explain to them that this is a fight the coalition can’t pick with Tory backbenchers, the press and — most importantly — the public.