A nasty mess of porridge
In the not-too-distant future some unfortunate minister is going to have to lay before the Commons a bill that none of the parties wants anything to do with. It will be a bill to give at least some of the guests residing in Her Majesty's prison system the vote.
The Franchise for Felons Bill (and you can bet someone in the Ministry of Justice has been tasked with thinking of a better title) is one of the nasty little time-bombs left in the coalition's in-tray by the previous government - as a result of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
The ECHR has ruled in a series of cases, and in particular in that the current blanket removal of all prisoners right to vote was a violation of Article 3 of the First Protocol to the - the right to "free and fair elections".
The Council of Europe warned in March that prisoners' right to vote should be secured in time for the forthcoming general election, or their rights would be breached, but nothing was done - and probably nothing could have been done at that late stage.
Since then there have been further euro-rumblings, and prisoners could go to court to seek compensation if they are not able to vote in next year's Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland elections, and in the referendum on electoral reform. But things get a bit more fraught come the next European Parliament elections, in 2014. UK elections are held under UK law, but euro-elections are held under European law, which means that European courts could award compensation and the British government could be fined.
The terms of the various ECHR rulings don't mean that every prisoner would have the right to vote - but that a simple blanket ban amounted to a breach of human rights. So the coalition will have to work out which prisoners should be allowed to vote and which should not. And since no political endeavour is more unwelcome than the business of drawing lines, all sorts of Opposition merriment will doubtless result.
Of course there those who think that giving prisoners the vote would help them re-integrate into society - including the and the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham. But the enfranchisement is unlikely to be confined to serial parking offenders - the perpetrators of some quite serious crimes would probably be included - and so a blast of wrath can be expected when the deed is done.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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