Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I believe that the Bill is a measure to satisfy the demands of 1 million Muslims but will restrict the free speech of 50 million other people in this country. Far from helping race relations and religious tolerance, it is bound to lead to worsening race relations, heightened suspicion between religions and smouldering resentment among ordinary people that yet another twist of the ratchet of authoritarianism and suppression of their traditional freedoms is being forced upon them by legislation of this sort by a Government careless of individual rights and freedom of expression. Existing legislation and rampaging political correctness are already making people look over their shoulders before making a remark that might offend somebody and land them in a police station or the courts. There was a recent example of a man being fined £750 for calling someone—a Welshman, I believe it was—a boyo. In my dictionary ““boyo”” is ““man””. That is the sort of thing we have to guard against. Such a situation is dangerous for democracy and will inevitably lead to a position where things that ought to be said about religions or religion itself will not be said for fear that saying them will land the person—whether he be actor, comedian, newspaper editor, author or the man or woman in the saloon bar—in jail. That is the threat under this legislation. It is no good the noble Lord shaking his head. The fact is that that can happen under this legislation—make no mistake about it. It could land somebody in jail for seven years. Our hard-won freedoms are being whittled away to accommodate a multiplicity of minorities which should adjust to the customs and institutions of their hosts. For years now multiculturalism has been promoted by government and others rather than integration and the acceptance of common values. We now know where multiculturalism leads. It leads to the ghetto and segregation. The authority for this is not me but none other than Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality. The Bill will only give impetus to ghettoisation and can only widen the religious divide. This restrictive and oppressive Bill can only lead to more fear and alienation. Fear leads to hatred and hatred drives people apart. That is a far cry from the one nation that the Prime Minister and others say they wish to create. That is what I want to create: a nation where we are all equal under the law and in which some people are not more equal than others. The British are a tolerant people and all kinds of religions have been able to establish themselves without the need for restrictive legislation of the sort before us today. We are being assured that there are adequate safeguards in the Bill to guarantee free speech. There are not such safeguards in the Bill. The safeguard of the Attorney-General’s fiat is no safeguard at all since the circumstances of its use depend on the decision of a single individual. Moreover, that individual will change from time to time. That is no safeguard at all. There is, of course, legislation creep, of the sort which occurred at the Labour Party conference in Brighton, when an 82-year-old man was held by police—it is no good moaning and groaning, that is the truth of it and we all saw it on the television—under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for an involuntary shout of ““nonsense”” during the Foreign Secretary’s dreary speech. It is no good denying that; we all saw it on the television. It was a disgraceful event. The Prevention of Terrorism Act, parts of which many of us opposed, was used to justify that man being kept outside the conference, which he had a right to attend. Then, of course, the Prime Minister is in trouble, is he not?