"I Want to See Them Swing!"

So, MPs can't ignore the sentiments expressed in e-petitions says top Tory tosser George Young MP. Which I take to mean that he's one of the hanging and flogging brigade, who seem to spend their time starting e-petitions calling for the return of the death penalty. It came as no surprise that the e-petitions published today were obsessed with capital punishment. Frankly, I find the idea that these should be used to 'prompt parliamentary debate' dismaying. It completely undermines the whole concept of the UK having a representative democracy. We decided a long time ago that allowing direct rule by the general public just doesn't work. Even allowing them to suggest topics for parliamentary debate - as these e-petitions show - a recipe for disaster. Issues of real importance will always be ignored in favour of 'populist' issues like the death penalty or pulling out of the EU, which interest groups and the media can build campaigns around. The most compelling argument against these e-petitions, of course, is that they are entirely unrepresentative of general opinion - only people with a pre-existing agenda are likely to start one, let alone put their name to one.

Having brought up the subject of capital punishment, it has to be asked - just why are the right-wing so obsessed with restoring judicial murder in this country? Leaving aside the compelling moral argument that it simply wrong to take a life, whether you are an individual or the state, there is absolutely no evidence that it acts as a deterrent, nor can it be argued that it represents 'justice' in any meaningful way. Let's face it, a significant proportion of homicides are so called 'crimes of passion', committed in the heat of the moment with no premeditation, many others are the result of drunken brawls, or are committed by people who, for want of a better term, are insane. None of these groups is likely to be deterred by the knowledge that their actions could be punishable by death. Moreover, executing them for a momentary lapse, or a psychological condition over which they have no control, would hardly be just. Then there are murders carried out in the course of another crime, or for financial gain - would the potential perpetrators of such crimes be deterred by the death penalty? They certainly weren't for all the time that we did have capital punishment in the UK. Then there's the issue of miscarriages of justice - you can't release and compensate someone wrongly convicted of murder if you've killed them. But then I've heard some of the 'I want to see them swing' mob saying that it doesn't bother them if an innocent person is occasionally executed by mistake - it is a price worth paying. What they never say, though, is whether they'd be happy to be hanged themselves if wrongly convicted. Funny that.