tariff (that period representing retribution and deterrence) had expired” (para 76). The court considered the government’s argument that the exclusion “affected only those convicted of crimes serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence”, and the very similar argument put forward by an intervener that imprisonment was “the last resort of criminal justice.” They appear to have rejected this argument on the facts, observing that sentences of imprisonment are imposed for a wide range of offenders and for periods from one day to life, and that because disenfranchisement was automatic the sentencer had no opportunity to assess its proportionality in any particular case (paras 77, 80). 132. The court considered that the absolute character of the rule disenfranchising convicted prisoners and its application to all convicted prisoners put it beyond the state’s margin of appreciation. They were fortified in this conclusion by their view that there was no evidence that Parliament had weighed the proportionality of a general exclusion. The court referred to the Speaker’s Conference of 1965-1968, and the Home Office working party of 1998-1999, and acknowledged that Parliament might be said implicitly to have endorsed their conclusions: “Nonetheless [they concluded] it cannot be said that there was any substantive debate by members of the legislature on the continued justification in light of modern day penal policy and of current human rights standards for maintaining such a general restriction on the right of prisoners to vote.” (para 79). 133. The court concluded as follows, at para 82: “Therefore, while the court reiterates that the margin of appreciation is wide, it is not all-embracing. Further, although the situation was somewhat improved by the Act of 2000 which for the first time granted the vote to persons detained on remand, section 3 of the 1983 Act remains a blunt instrument. It strips of their Convention right to vote a significant category of persons and it does so in a way which is indiscriminate. The provision imposes a blanket restriction on all convicted prisoners in prison. It applies automatically to such prisoners, irrespective of the length of their sentence and irrespective of the nature or gravity of their offence and their individual circumstances. Such a general, automatic and indiscriminate restriction on a vitally important Convention right must be seen as falling outside any acceptable margin of appreciation, however wide Page 61