Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Ex Lifer

I'm not really too bothered about votes for prisoners but this may be one of the most revealing phrases in the English language:
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg was only able to pass judgement on this matter because of an individual case lodged by an ex-lifer who had pursued his claim relentlessly for years
If you're an ex-lifer than you were never really a lifer to begin with.

4 comments:

JuliaM said...

It's clumsy phrasing indeed.

But (though I'd be only too happy to see Hirst dangling at the end of a rope) I think the concentration on him and his unpleasantness is detracting from the real issues, which is the abrogation of our self-determinism on this policy...

Ross said...

I wasn't even thinking of Hirst in particular.

Matthew said...

I'd be extremely surprised if he was an 'ex-lifer'. In fact I'm not even sure he was ever a lifer, but you cannot be an ex-lifer unless the Home Secretary pardons you or the Queen declades an amnesty. Neither happened in this case I hink.

Anonymous said...

If only he was an ex-lifer, as in the "ex-parrot" sense.