Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

I thank the noble Lord. What a great fellow he is. I shall see him in the bar afterwards and reward him. It seems that the people who are motivated to get up—although we do not catch the Speaker’s eye—are those who disagree with the Government. I can understand that, because everyone assumes that the Government are pushing the Bill on and the only way we can stop them is for all of us who are against it to get up and say so. I think that all of those who think that the Government are right ought to say so more often, not just on this Bill but at Question Time and other occasions. The Government are not always wrong. They are very often right, and we should say so. I found it strange when the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, said today that the Government had brought party politics into something like this. The noble Baroness with the lovely Irish name—I was going to say, ““the lovely Baroness with the Irish name””—which I promise to learn to pronounce, mentioned party politics. Well, of course party politics comes into all this. We are pulling wool over our eyes if we do not accept that. A number of people have said that legislation does not change minds, so why should we bother? Legislation changes the framework in which we work. It can make sure that the kind of appalling things that happen—they do happen—involving incitement to religious hatred are less likely to. Then we have had a number of statements—again and again, today and at Second Reading—such as that made by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwark, who said that Christians demonstrating outside were looking for assurances that they could preach the gospel. There is nothing in the Bill that will stop people preaching the gospel. The noble Lord, Lord Peston, said that it would reduce freedom of expression, and that was said again today. People can keep on asserting that the Bill will do that, but there is nothing in it that will. It is a misunderstanding of the Bill. I will give you a clue as to why people are misunderstanding it. I am glad that the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes, is here, because again and again people have referred to the legislation in Australia as if it was exactly the same as the legislation that we are considering. It is not. In Australia, the legislation says that it outlaws activities that lead to serious contempt towards or ridicule of a religious group. We are not talking about ridicule. If we did have ““ridicule”” in the Bill, Rowan Atkinson would be right. It is not in the Bill, however.