Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, this is the most illiberal measure that has been brought before your Lordships in the 18 years I have been privileged to serve here. It is beyond belief, at least on my part, that it has been introduced by a Labour Government. The Bill is also irrational in that it is neither directed at, nor will it solve, the problems that gave rise to it. What it does is reduce freedom of expression—there is no doubt about that at all. Given the seriousness of this latest threat to the open society, I was struck by the rather casual way in which in my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor admitted this. The apologists for the Bill say that the diminution of freedom occurs within very strict limits. I can only assume that they have not read the precise words in the Bill. Since the Bill can give rise to litigation, in practice, the media, not least television and radio, will proceed with great caution when it comes to offering programmes involving criticism of religion, either generally or specifically. It is na&-uml;ve to pretend that there will be no implicit censorship, as my noble friend Lady Turner has said. In this connection, as many noble Lords have pointed out, the Bill poses a threat to what, for want of a better expression, I call the established religions of this country. To someone like me, who regards all religious belief as failing to meet even the most elementary epistemological and deontological criteria, there will not be a problem. This is especially so since I, for one, have never gone from philosophical disagreement to hatred. I say that despite my concern about the damage done to young minds by proponents of such anti-scientific idiocies as intelligent design. But if you are a devout Christian—here I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Chan—and wish to say that yours is the only true religion, which surely you are entitled to say—I would have thought even obliged to say—you can be caught by the Bill. The grounds would be that, whatever your intent, you are implying that other religions are not true. Similarly, Jews, who claim that they are the chosen people, which is stated quite explicitly in the Bible, must also be asserting that no one else is chosen. More generally, of course, I do not know how pseudo religions fit into any of this at all, or whether they will be protected from valid scrutiny. I am bound to add that I was not helped in understanding any of this by the refusal of the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor to give us a glossary of the relevant terms. How in any sense this Bill helps to promote religious tolerance is beyond me. Quite the contrary, it will exacerbate the problems that we have already. Viewing the subject from a broader perspective, I am not foolish enough to believe that we have no problems. However, I am certain, that the louts who attack people of eastern origin do not behave in that appalling way because of an antipathy to their religion. It is impossible to believe that such hooligans have any knowledge of Islam whatever. Those hooligans hate the people themselves and can and must be dealt with accordingly. As I understand it, laws exist to do that. I also interpose a thought for the Government to consider. If they are exercised by religious and racial prejudice, they might look again at the laws protecting private clubs, notably golf clubs, which are centres of such bigotry. I repeat, we have serious problems and we have a long way to go, but I am bound to add that over my lifetime, our country has shown remarkable tolerance of new arrivals. Not all, but most people welcome them and wish to see them fully integrated into our way of life. I had never spoken to a black or brown person until I went to university and hardly even then; my children’s experience at the local comprehensives was quite different; and my grandchild’s experience is even more so. When I was young, who would have expected to see so many people from the ethnic minorities on television or, more relevantly, in your Lordships’ House or, what is dearest to my heart, as a majority in the Arsenal football team? I usually calculate that when there is a majority of black players we win. However, I wish that those who have recently become subjects of Her Majesty would be more appreciative of that. Returning to my main theme, none of those good things to which I have referred will be helped by this Bill. Instead, it will be a hindrance. If it were not for my devotion to the high standards set by your Lordships’ House, my inclination would be to divide the House and decline to give this Bill a Second Reading. But I believe that we would be foolish to do that. We must scrutinise the Bill in great depth by tabling amendments covering all the likely problems. Of course, it would be better still if the Government, having listened to today’s reasonable arguments, were persuaded simply to withdraw the Bill altogether.