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October 26, 2005

UK: Religious Hatred Bill Defeated in Lords

The House of Lords yesterday voted by a majority of 149 to scrap the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, opting instead to add an amendment which would curtail its vague and nebulous wording. They also agreed the amendment should retain safeguards for free speech.

The only people who supported this Bill were Tony Blair and his lackeys, and the Muslim Council for Britain (MCB) and related groups, who wanted a blanket ban on any speech which criticised their faith, as is practised in the state of Victoria, Australia.

The vote - at 260 to 111, would have been a more resounding defeat, according to the Times if the government had not offered to attempt to find a compromise within the next fortnight.

Baroness Scotland, of Asthal, QC, admitted that "there are issues which we found difficult" and pleaded with peers to give her time to try to bring forward amendments at its report stage.

Opposition to the Bill, which has been led by an eclectic alliance including evangelical Christian groups and the comedian Rowan Atkinson, is likely to intensify after her admission of doubts within the Government over the Bill.

Lord Hunt of Wirral, a Tory peer, who led the debate, insisted on pushing ahead with a vote, after he accused the government of not fulfilling an agreement to allow opposition parties to be consulted over the Bill.

The Telegraph quoted Lord Hunt in his criticism of the Bill, which would have been an amendment to the Public Order Act of 1986, who saw the Bill as an impediment to freedom of expression.

It is the bedrock of any tolerant, liberal and free society that we must all learn to live according to certain first principles," he said.

"One of the most fundamental of those is that, from time to time, we must tolerate other people expressing sentiments or engaging in activities that we ourselves find unappealing or even distasteful.

The Guardian stated:

The government argues that the law extends to Muslim and other groups protection that is already enjoyed by Christians, Jews and Sikhs. Ministers have indicated that they may use the Parliament Act to force the law through if peers continue to object.

The idea of rubber-stamping a Bill without the approval of the second House is controversial. It happened for the first time in more than forty years, in 2004. This was when the government used the Parliament Act to make their Bill, which outlawed fox-hunting with dogs, a legal statute. However, the fox-hunting issue had been approved by the House of Commons and sent to the House of Lords, who had rejected it, on numerous occasions.

To force through such a controversial Bill at this moment, when it has had only one defeat in the Lords and does not have popular support from the public, apart from the politicised Muslims at MCB, could be seen as political suicide.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 26, 2005 7:45 AM

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Posted by: Andy at October 29, 2005 10:51 AM

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