Aren't politicians such a barrel of laughs. Whinging about this, demanding we do that. Stuffing their pockets with tax payers money whilst asking us to tighten our belts. All the usual demogogery & hypocriscy that comes with the territory of professional politics.
Yet this week they've gone & done something brilliant. They voted - mostly Tories but pretty much a cross-section of the parties - to stick two fingers up at the European Court of Human Rights by voting against giving prisoners the vote. It's a question of national sovreignty & pride apparently that since the 19th century prisoners have been denied the vote automatically as part of their punishment. We're happy enough with this situation, say a large chunk of our politicians, that we'd like to keep it as it is. Sod the ECHR. Sod the rule of law. It's a law we don't like so we're not going to obey it.
Now this blog isn't about prisoners right to vote. It isn't about the ECHR. It isn't about sovreignty. I'm not going to talk about the pro's & con's of either of these things. It's about hypocriscy.
It's about the fact that if we, as citizens, were to say, "I don't like this law. I'm going to tell them to shove it & carry on before." Then there would be consequences. Trade Unions can't ignore judges who find their ballots to be unexceptable because the law is ridiculously biased in favour of the employer. They'd be found in ccntempt of court & sanction would follow.
However it is OK for our politicians to do so. Judges have ruled. Our politicians don't like it so we carry on as before.
Politicians constantly whinge about obeying the rule of law & yet they have given us a great example to follow: if you think a law is bad, just ignore it. Complain about the court. Carry on as before.
If it is alright for parliament, it's alright for the rest of us.
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