[Shasown]

Originally Posted by angus58

At last the voice of reason and commonsense prevails. High Court Judge Mr Justice Langstaff has thrown out the claims of 588 prisoners seeking to cash in on the MPs' ban on their voting, and they've been ordered to pay £76 each towards the costs (equivalent of two weeks' prison wages). No greedy lawyers wish to represent them since they have all been denied legal aid.

The Judge quite rightly stated that European Judgments cannot be allowed to trump British Laws passed at Westminster. In fact there is no legal requirement whatsoever for Britain to abide by European Judgments.

On this issue I am positive Cameron's government will get massive support from the public who will be amazed and delighted that we still have some Judges with commonsense. This will also be a justified and well deserved kick in the teeth for the usual liberal bigots who seem to have lost sight of the difference between basic human rights and privileges. It will no doubt also deter the opportunistic prisoners and greedy lawyers from attempting to launch compensation claims in future.

Good decision by the Judge on this one, however there are still over Two and a half thousand cases pending in Strasbourg and another 800 between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Should be amusing to see what the government does if either the Scottish or N Irish courts decide contrary to this one.

Incidentally £76 is about 8 weeks wages not two. So some of them wont be enjoying chocolate or smokes for a while.