Seems as if bas and the express are framing this in terms of the UK v. Europe. That's perhaps one aspect of it but then what about the issue at hand? After all if we keep on rejecting ideas just because Europe suggested them, that's bound to run the risk of rejecting good ideas out of spite.
The ruling only asks us to lift a blanket ban on prisoners voting -- and we can and should keep in place a ban on those prisoners with long sentences. There is no suggestion of, nor any need to consider, giving murderers, rapists, exceptionally violent criminals etc., the right to vote. And quite right too. But for those on short sentences, I think the arguments need to be more careful. Describing everyone in prison as a "lowlife" seems perhaps to overlook that for some people it may have been a moment of madness, of succumbing to temptation or the red mist, that led to them being caught, tried and convicted of a relatively minor offence. Such people aren't lowlifes, they just made a mistake that perhaps, on another day, anyone else would be capable of doing. You need only look as far as the August Riots of 2011, or what goes on whenever the cargo of some ship washes ashore, or what happened in one village when the only parking attendant was suspended and word got out, to see that if the opportunity is there to grab free stuff many people will take it -- many people who would probably think of themselves as law-abiding citizens, too. I think we should be careful to describe such people as lowlifes, when they aren't that far away from us really.
An important part of prison, too, is to try and help reintegrate the prisoner into society. Rehabilitation and all that. It could be argued that allowing those nearing the end of their sentence a right to vote might help in that respect, help them feel as if they belong again. Optimistically it might even help reduce the reoffending rate, but that's something that remains to be seen and I'm sure there's plenty else we can do to help rehabilitation work better.
Anyway, this particular law would bring the vote to those criminals who were only guilty of minor offences and perhaps would have been thought of previously as respectable people. Should they lose every right they have after what was possibly a moment of madness? I'm sure there are plenty of other people who never lost the right to vote, but whom we might not want to because they don't really engage in politics or consider the issues and just vote blue or red out of spite for the other side.
I'm hardly passionate about this issue, but -- well, maybe some of the above has at least given you something to think about, but I'm not exactly betting on it.