Prisoners of Strasbourg

Does it matter if prisoners are allowed to vote or not? Save for in the odd council ward in Brixton or on Dartmoor, some 84,000 prisoners — among an electorate of 46 million — are unlikely to have a material effect on the outcome of British elections.

Does it matter if prisoners are allowed to vote or not? Save for in the odd council ward in Brixton or on Dartmoor, some 84,000 prisoners — among an electorate of 46 million — are unlikely to have a material effect on the outcome of British elections. But there is a good reason why David Cameron this week did not even attempt to whip his MPs into supporting prisoners’ votes: such a move would have prompted a fierce rebellion among Tory backbenchers. The issue of prisoners’ votes has become a proxy for a much more significant question: are European countries governed by their own elected representatives, or by foreign judges?

When Mr Cameron said that the idea of letting prisoners vote made him ‘physically sick’, he implied that even the Prime Minister was powerless, because the decision was ultimately made in Strasbourg.