MPs sell out the good, decent people for the criminal scum. Again.

Prison reform campaigners welcomed ministers' partial concession yesterday to allow some prisoners the right to vote before next year's local elections.

Amid reports that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is examining which criminals should be allowed the right to vote, No 10 said it would be "unfortunate" if a blanket ban was lifted entirely.
But the Prime Minister's spokesman stressed the government would have to take into account a number of ongoing court cases on the issue as it examines a way forward.
European judges have previously ruled that Britain's outright ban on prisoner voting is unlawful under human rights laws, and the previous Labour government launched a consultation on the matter but failed to change the law.
Mr Clegg is reportedly looking at which prisoners might be allowed to cast a ballot to head off a collision with the Council of Europe which has given Britain three months to comply.
Asked if the Prime Minister felt there was a "moral imperative" to change the current situation his official spokesman said: "He would think that a lot of people in the country would find this difficult to understand, but we will have to take into account what the courts say."
Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said it was time to "overturn the outdated and counterproductive ban" on prisoners voting.
"Foot-dragging will no longer be tolerated by the Council of Europe," she noted.
"People in prison, with the exception of those proportionately punished for electoral fraud, must be enfranchised in time for the elections in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the local elections in 2011."
The issue threatens to further expose tensions within the coalition - the Tories have previously argued that the ban should remain in place while the Lib-Dems have argued for change.

MPs make concessions on lifting prison vote ban / Britain / Home - Morning Star

So rapists, child killers, human traffickers, drug barons, rapists, pedophiles, murderers and the generally depraved are to be handed the vote.

The government is beyond contempt.

The crimewave that shames the world - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent

Comment: Fisky, Fisky, when will you realize that your liberal principles dont matter a toss in the more - ahem - barbaric and savage parts of the world?

here is Islam, red in tooth and claw, and you don't like it.

It's nothing like the Islamic paid liars and fifth columnists, who you usually have tea with in your pied-a-terre eh? Nothing like the equivalent of Uncle Toms and House Niggers of the Islamic world that you socialize with, really, are they.... thed people you slum it with aren't like that, and you're shocked. You've done sooooo much for the Islamic world, and - what - they keep up their horrible and cruel ways? Boooo hoooo hoooo Robert, boooo hoooo ....

A 10-month investigation by The Independent in Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank has unearthed terrifying details of murder most foul. Men are also killed for "honour" and, despite its identification by journalists as a largely Muslim practice, Christian and Hindu communities have stooped to the same crimes. Indeed, the "honour" (or ird) of families, communities and tribes transcends religion and human mercy. But voluntary women's groups, human rights organisations, Amnesty International and news archives suggest that the slaughter of the innocent for "dishonouring" their families is increasing by the year.

Iraqi Kurds, Palestinians in Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey appear to be the worst offenders but media freedoms in these countries may over-compensate for the secrecy which surrounds "honour" killings in Egypt – which untruthfully claims there are none – and other Middle East nations in the Gulf and the Levant. But honour crimes long ago spread to Britain, Belgium, Russia and Canada and many other nations. Security authorities and courts across much of the Middle East have connived in reducing or abrogating prison sentences for the family murder of women, often classifying them as suicides to prevent prosecutions.

It is difficult to remain unemotional at the vast and detailed catalogue of these crimes. How should one react to a man – this has happened in both Jordan and Egypt – who rapes his own daughter and then, when she becomes pregnant, kills her to save the "honour" of his family? Or the Turkish father and grandfather of a 16-year-old girl, Medine Mehmi, in the province of Adiyaman, who was buried alive beneath a chicken coop in February for "befriending boys"? Her body was found 40 days later, in a sitting position and with her hands tied.

Or Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, 13, who in Somalia in 2008, in front of a thousand people, was dragged to a hole in the ground – all the while screaming, "I'm not going – don't kill me" – then buried up to her neck and stoned by 50 men for adultery? After 10 minutes, she was dug up, found to be still alive and put back in the hole for further stoning. Her crime? She had been raped by three men and, fatally, her family decided to report the facts to the Al-Shabab militia that runs Kismayo. Or the Al-Shabab Islamic "judge" in the same country who announced the 2009 stoning to death of a woman – the second of its kind the same year – for having an affair? Her boyfriend received a mere 100 lashes.

Or the young woman found in a drainage ditch near Daharki in Pakistan, "honour" killed by her family as she gave birth to her second child, her nose, ears and lips chopped off before being axed to death, her first infant lying dead among her clothes, her newborn's torso still in her womb, its head already emerging from her body? She was badly decomposed; the local police were asked to bury her. Women carried the three to a grave, but a Muslim cleric refused to say prayers for her because it was "irreligious" to participate in the namaz-e-janaza prayers for "a cursed woman and her illegitimate children".

The crimewave that shames the world - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent