Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, it is extremely rarely that I disagree with the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford, but I shall do so briefly this afternoon. I hope that he will reconsider some of the main strands of his opposition to the amendment so clearly and well moved by my noble friend Lord Avebury. The right reverend Prelate said that he did not see a connection between religious hatred and blasphemy and that therefore it was inappropriate to make the amendment to the Bill. There is a connection, in that blaspheming is one way of expressing and fomenting hatred. He also said that this was not the time to introduce this reform into the Bill—the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, spoke about that at some length—but I believe that this is the time. The law of blasphemy, as the right reverend Prelate admitted, is more or less a dead letter. It is nearly 30 years since we last had a prosecution, and when we had one it promoted more confusion than light. As a Low Church ecumenical Anglican, I believe that, if anything, the law is now an encumbrance to the Church, and against the spirit of the age, which is one of extreme liberality of view and expression of view. In a strange way it works against the Church, in that it gives some people the notion that it cannot stand on its own feet and fight its own corner as other faiths and organisations have to do. I see no good argument for keeping it in place except the traditional one. I am a traditionalist: a good tradition knows when to steal away. For those of us who find the Bill as originally drafted unacceptable in creating an offence of promoting religious hatred, this is a perfect opportunity for the church to sacrifice this legislative bauble to the greater cause; to find a common position with other faiths, particularly Islam at this time; to claim no special protection; to say that we stand with you, the same under law as you are; and to proceed from there. There are public order laws to prevent the worst infractions of order and decency. Such a gesture would resonate throughout the Church community and among the public at large.