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Guido Fawkes campaigns to restore death penalty
The blogger has launched an e-petition calling for MPs to vote on the issue
Political blogger Guido Fawkes has been on a roll recently, lobbying MPs to act over the News International phone hacking scandal and pursuing Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne over the penalty points allegation. But he faces a tough task in his latest crusade - convincing MPs to reinstate the death penalty.
Over the weekend, Fawkes (real name Paul Staines, above) came out in support of a campaign to bring back capital punishment and has launched an e-petition demanding MPs vote on the matter.
On his blog he pledged: "Guido will put all the resources at his command into a campaign for a vote on the restoration of capital punishment for child and cop killers. Even if we don't win the vote on the floor of the House, we shall at least see which MPs believe salus populi suprema est lex, and those that put the welfare of child killers above the wider community."
Although there is a certain irony in Guido's position considering the fate of his revolutionary namesake, who was executed following the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, it is likely to prove popular with the public.
As Guido pointed out on Twitter, a YouGov poll in 2010 found that 74 per cent of people supported the death penalty for murder in some circumstances. He also found support from three Conservative MPs - Philip Davies, Priti Patel and Andrew Turner.
However, the blogger was met with some fierce resistance from among his 50,000 followers. And when MPs last voted on the issue in 1994 the idea was rejected by 403 votes to 159. Then there is the fact that the death penalty is illegal in the European Union.
None of this has deterred Guido, who has been peppering his Twitter feed with campaigning messages. "This is people v the political elite," he announced on Monday. Earlier he claimed: "Since the abolition of the death penalty in the '60s the murder rate has doubled."
He has also announced that he is looking for an intern to help with the campaign to get 100,000 signatures, and he even told one of his critics: "I would personally execute child killers. Think you'll find a lot of fathers would feel the same." ·
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You might have known someone would use the "at [the] the tax-payer['s] expense" statement. What the f*** is it that makes Daily Heil readers and other morons think tax-payers have the right to decide how the tax revenue is spent?
Look: here's the deal. We elect governments to spend the money for us. If you don't like it, vote for someone else. And they will still spend the money for us. That's the way it works.
As far as capital punishment is concerned, it's a stupid idea. It doesn't deter murderers, and it doesn't prevent murders. You want revenge, OK, let's stone people to death, have them publicly beheaded, or put them in the middle of a football field and let BNP members kick them to death.
If that makes you happy, suit yourself. Personally I'm glad I'm not you.
Who needs the News of The World when we have Guido Fawkes to whip up hysteria and demand a perverted skewering of laws. If I was the relative of a murder victim (who wasn't a child or police officer) I would ask for a petition to return town gossips like Staines to the stocks with a pile of rotten fruit on hand for punishment. How dare he imply that some victims of a terrible crime are more equal or more worthy than others.
Stefan Kiszko isn't available to comment, so I'll do it for him: A Thoroughly Bad Idea.
In cases of aggravated murder, the Death Penalty is clearly deserved and justified. I'd support this. Scum like Levi Bellfield shouldn't be living at tax-payer expense. He should go to the electric chair, and die in agony. If you're too squeamish to push the button, I'll come and do it for you.
I believe morons like this, should be locked up, and the key thrown aweay.
Although I personally would like to see a deterrent in this country for murder it would not have helped my family when my brother was brutally murdered as the coniving lawyers made a deal and got the animal away with murder he received manslaughter with provocation!!! even though he said on the stand he WAS NOT PROVOKED BYANYTHING SAID OR DONE BY MY BROTHER!!! he escaped with a 7 year sentence of which he served 4 years 8 months. Had the deterrent of hanging or lethal injection have been around I am quite sure this murder could have been prevented.