distortion of crucial public interest debates and, thereby, the undermining of the democratic process” (para 116). 33. Thirdly, the Attorney General argues, it was fallacious to treat the United Kingdom ban as affecting a “group of people generally, automatically and indiscriminately”, simply because the ban was based solely on the fact that they are serving a prison sentence, irrespective of the length of the sentence and irrespective of the nature or gravity of their offence and their individual circumstances. Any rule of law affects a group of people defined by its terms. If a group is rationally defined, there is no reason why there should necessarily be exceptions. As the Grand Chamber pointed out in relation to the Italian legislation in Scoppola (para 106), so also in the United Kingdom a sentencing court takes into account the nature and gravity of the offence as well as individual circumstances when deciding in the first place whether any and if so what sentence of imprisonment is required. As a result, only 8% of convicted offenders go to prison in England, 15% in Scotland. The group affected is confined to convicted prisoners and so excludes those in prison on remand awaiting trial as well as hospital detainees. Further, within the group of convicted prisoners, the ban does not extend to those in prison for contempt or default in paying fines. 34. Despite the Attorney General’s forceful submissions, I do not consider that it would be right for this Court to refuse to apply the principles established by the Grand Chamber decisions in Hirst (No 2) and Scoppola consistently with the way in which they were understood and applied in those decisions. The Grand Chamber in Scoppola was prepared to give the Italian legislator a greater margin of manoeuvre than one would have expected from its previous decision in Hirst (No 2). But this was on the basis that the Italian law did not involve a blanket ban in respect of all or almost all convicted prisoners. It excluded those convicted of “minor” offences (involving less than three years imprisonment), and it had a two step gradation in the length of the ban according to whether the sentence was for less or for more than five years imprisonment. As a result “a large number of convicted prisoners” had the vote. Furthermore, there was the possibility of rehabilitation for “consistent and genuine good conduct” displayed for three years after release. Nothing in Scoppola therefore suggests that the Grand Chamber would revise its view in Hirst (No 2) to the point where it would accept the United Kingdom’s present general ban. There is on this point no prospect of any further meaningful dialogue between United Kingdom Courts and Strasbourg. 35. I would also reject the suggestion that the Supreme Court should refuse to apply the principles stated in the Strasbourg case-law in the present circumstances. Deep though the “philosophical differences of view between reasonable people” may be on this point, it would in my opinion exaggerate their legal and social importance to regard them as going to “some fundamental substantive or procedural aspect of our law”: see the citation from Pinnock in para 26 above. Page 20