Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I am happy to accept that further summary of the position from the noble Lord. I was going to say that I had hoped today for a roar of welcome from the Benches of the right reverend Prelates, because they are so near to saying ““Yes””. The right reverend Prelate indicates that he gave a roar of welcome in principle, for which I am glad, but he too relied on the principle of unripe time to say that we should do it not today but at some future occasion. The Church of England should be anxious to get rid of this privileged position. As a secular humanist, I generally support the position of the Church of England. To abolish blasphemy is not to take a step down the road to disestablishment. I would resist disestablishment strongly—I do not say this as a joke; not being an adherent, I may get things wrong, and I apologise if I do—because the Church of England is not a Church that attempts to seize more and more temporal power. There are Churches of that kind, which tend to disapprove and enforce their disapproval of what goes on in the bedroom, tend to tell you that you have got to believe in myths that seem to evolve, decade on decade, with bodily ascensions and all sorts of other stories, and are very fierce with you—at least in theory—if you do not believe in and do not do what they say in the privacy of your life. The Church of England has developed, like the rest of law and practice, into a very modern position. It has freed itself from the wish to impose controls of that kind, and it has come very close, even within itself, to accepting the equality of women, which is one of the most important developments of our time. I am very happy that it brings to such problems a broad and liberal mind. It has a bit of a way to go, and I shall judge it as having achieved its final or near-final step on that road when it demands from the BBC that ““Thought for the Day”” on Radio 4, to which I am sure all your Lordships listen avidly every morning, includes regular contributions from such noted thinkers as Professor Richard Dawkins and Dr Jonathan Miller, whose programme on disbelief I am sure that your Lordships enjoyed last night. The general position of the Church of England is consistent with and promotes a discussion about freedom of expression. It is my hope that your Lordships will express a view—if invited to do so tonight—and that we shall be with the Bishops when they come to vote in the Aye Lobby, as I believe that the vast majority of this House and the other House would, if given the opportunity. Let us give them the opportunity and settle the matter, which we all know should be settled now.