Angry Britain

This is worth a read, especially given that it’s written by a teenager!

What Youth Think

If you check the Twitter or Facebook feed of any politician, political party, company, news agency, TV channel, journalist, author – in fact pretty much anyone – you’ll notice one thing. No matter what they say, in the replies, someone will be angry with them.

If ITV News dare post a positive or light hearted story, they’ll be vilified for ‘ignoring the important things happening in the world.’ If a politician tweets about an inspirational person or cause, they’re ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ merely for personal gain, and if that happens to David Cameron he should ‘get back to running the country’ even if it happens to be 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon. If a mobile phone network (possibly among the most hated companies in the country) makes a gag they’re ridiculed for awful signal or customer service. All this moaning can only suggest one thing. Britain is full of very angry people.

View original post 302 more words

Opinion – UK Ban on Prisoners Voting Breaches Their Human Rights: European Rights Court – NYTimes.com – John Gelmini

European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The EU’s priorities on this, and other matters, is as Dr Alf suggests is worrying.

Prisoners to my mind have a right to a strict and humane regime, sensible attempts to redeem themselves and become useful and productive members of society.

Beyond that they are entitled to be fed, given exercise periods, reading material, some limited visitation rights (people coming to them) and spiritual guidance, but nothing else.

This has to be done, even though some prisoners are hardened criminals incapable of the slightest remorse and in my book evil.

Beyond that, they have forfeited the right to vote because they are no longer contributing financially to society and represent a costly burden on everyone else, quite apart from the damage, injury and distress that they have caused their immediate victims.

These costs do not just include the costs of arrest, police time, incarceration, courts and probation officers, juries and witnesses.

They also include raised insurance premiums to cover theft and damage and the mental and emotional scars that their victims feel and often have to be treated for.

Patients in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries are already creating more demand than supply and prisoners by creating more demand cause others who are genuinely ill to be missed or misdiagnosed by doctors rushing to get through growing caseloads.

Those persons in the EU who make these judgements do not have to live with the consequences so this aspect of the Human Rights legislation has to be offset by the rights of everyone else who have been affected by the criminal activities of the prisoners before they were caught, tried and imprisoned and afterwards if the prisoner reoffends as many of them do.

John Gelmini