Thursday 13 March 2008

Push the button.


Mr Smith reads that some of the Liberal Democrat Members of the Scottish Parliament appear to have difficulties knowing how to vote.

"Voting errors by the Liberal Democrats last night diluted the impact of the government's victory to extend home tagging as a way of easing prison overcrowding. There were two votes, one which would have enabled electronically tagged early release to apply for the first time to prisoners who had been sentenced to more than four years. This vote went against the government by four votes, but only because four LibDems accidentally voted the wrong way and two dashed into the chamber too late."

It's sad that a major issue of public policy involving public safety is determined in the Scottish Parliament not by reasoned debate and decision, but because some MSPs couldn't understand the wording of a motion well enough to be able to work out whether to vote yes or no, and because two MSPs couldn't "dash" quickly enough. That's democracy ... Scotland style.

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