Orf wiv their 'eads

[davywavy]

There's quite a famous photo from the early 1980's which shows fashion designer Katherine Hamnett meeting Margaret Thatcher wearing a T-shirt reading "58% don't want Pershing" (a reference to the introduction of a new British nuclear deterrent). What is not so famous (perhaps because it is hard to take propaganda-friendly photographs of sharp put-downs) is Margaret Thatcher's response, which was to fix her with a withering glare and observe that 75% of people were in favour of re-introducing the death penalty but she had no intention of taking any notice of that, either.
I suppose all this does is show the worthlessness of opinion polls and the danger of allowing policy to be decided by single-interest pressure groups - I have to wonder what the overlap would be if you drew a Venn Diagram of the anti-Pershing and pro-death penalty groups.

I was reminded of this yesterday when someone observed to me that when Germany abolished the death penalty in 1949 75% of people opposed the abolition, but now only 15% of Germans would approve of the re-introduction. In the UK, the situation is rather different - since the abolition of the death penalty in this country, the number of people in favour of re-introducing it has remained pretty solidly over 60%, with the most recent poll in December 2003 indicating 62% support for a re-introduction of hanging.
It'd be interesting to debate the difference on post-capital punishment opinions in the UK and Germany; whether Germans are more or less civilised than us, whether their history has given them more idea of just how badly wrong state-sanctioned killing can go, or whether the UK's history of IRA insurgency has maintained a desire of state vengeance for extreme crimes.
It's a pretty common myth that the only crimes to still carry the death penalty in this country are High Treason and Sabotage in Naval Dockyards, but the use of extreme sanction even in these cases was removed from the statute books a few years ago and now thanks to this government's lenient sentencing policies Sabotage in Naval Dockyards carries 100 hours of community service and High Treason will get you an ASBO.

With that in mind, a poll:

[Poll #784714]

And always remember the wise words of the Reverend Jesse Jackson: "The death penalty makes the state a murderer, but keeping men in prison makes the state a gay brothel-keeper."

Comments

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The jury seems very much still out on whether or not the death penalty is a deterrent; a quick search of the literature will find very convincing-sounding research backing up both the 'is' and 'isn't' points of view.
I think it is one of those subjects where people are going to find evidence to support their points of view from whichever side, and then rubbish the other as being either naive or evil.
Actual debate on the subject is almost negligible.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read Pierpoint's autobiography?

I personally take his word to have far more "sway" than any report out there. If he didn't believe it was a deterant then I think it's fair to say it probably isn't. Accademics can blow hot air on the subject all they like, do people still commit crimes in countries where the dp exists? Of course they do! They just deny their involvement that little bit louder.

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

I agree it isn't necessarily a deterrant. But what it does do is cut the re-offense rate.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

Very true. I'm 100% in favour of some form of permenant prevention of reoffending - now that I've suggested ffl's for rapists I'm feeling that it wouldn't be a bad substitute for the rope too...

But not knowing enough about it I'd be more than happy for the dp to be brought back.