Sunday 3 April 2011

Temporary Setback

I had planned to fisk this article by Kevin McKenna in favour of votes for prisoners.

But I couldn't get any further than the first line:
If we could discover a set of indices to measure a country's degree of enlightenment then Scotland, I'm sure, would be up there with ancient Greece.
*boggle*

14 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

Well .. both countries have a history of their men folk wearing skirts .. ;)

WitteringsfromWitney said...

I cannot wait for the comment Subrosa leaves...... :)

Zaphod said...

Giving prisoners the vote would improve our lives more than it would improve theirs. I really don't see the problem.

I anticipate disagreement on this subject from some of those who have never, ever, broken any law...

Furor Teutonicus said...

Enlightenment?

Aye, because sitting in a trance in front of the plasma screen chavvision maschine, stoned of your face on White lightning and Buckys chasers, with 16 joints worth of opiated black, or Thai templeball, down your face tends to do that....right?

Quiet_Man said...

I fail to see how giving a prisoner the right to vote would improve my life Zaphod

And yes I have broken many laws and paid the penalty at times when caught.

Zaphod said...

Denying the vote to others diminishes us all. It shouldn't be considered without a very good reason. I can't see any practical reason.

I too have broken laws and paid penalties. I've never been tortured, killed, placed in the stocks, denied access to a lawyer, or received any sanctions that made me feel excessively persecuted.

I have broken laws that I disagree strongly with. Also some that I don't. But I still feel part of society, I haven't been alienated. Not yet.

Society is better off with me inside the tent pissing out, rather than outside the tent pissing in. Trust me on this.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Zaphod. In fact, I think locking people up for committing "crimes" diminishes us all too. After all, what is a "crime"?

Surely the best way to ensure the downtrodden feel part of society is to allow them complete freedom to do as they wish. I for one welcome the prison doors being thrown open and rapists, terrorists and murderers being free to live in peaceful harmony with the rest of us.

Trust me on this.

The King of Wrong said...

I think he mis-spelled "entitlement" ;)

Zaphod said...

Prisons are not full of "rapists, terrorists and murderers". They are a very small minority. (And them getting the vote would have negligable impact on the outcome of elections).

There is not a bogey man under the bed, either.

blueknight said...

I think one or two prisoners have raised this issue, not because they really want to vote, but because they are after some compensation for the years they have been denied this right.
Most prisoners probably didn't vote when they were free. ( Jim Devine and co excepted)

JuliaM said...

"I anticipate disagreement on this subject from some of those who have never, ever, broken any law..."

...that I'd go to jail for.

"I fail to see how giving a prisoner the right to vote would improve my life Zaphod"

Yup, I'm struggling with that one as well!

"But I still feel part of society, I haven't been alienated. Not yet."

I don't think most criminals break laws for those reasons, do they?

"Prisons are not full of "rapists, terrorists and murderers". They are a very small minority."

Well, thievery - of all sorts - is probably the major crime of the prison population, that's true..

JuliaM said...

"Most prisoners probably didn't vote when they were free. ( Jim Devine and co excepted)"

Heh!

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Oh, enlightenment!

Ha ha.

The first time I read it, I saw entitlement.

Arf arf.

Chanticleer said...

Kevin appears to have misspelt "grease"