British Board of Film Classification (Accountability to Parliament and Appeals) Bill

Very good. In a second, I shall help the hon. Gentleman with some other putting right that he might want to do. It is worth reflecting on why so few Members of Parliament have signed the early-day motion on ““Manhunt 2””. The BBFC received 779 complaints about its banning of that game, but the vast majority were from people protesting about the ban, not people suggesting that it should have been done sooner or that something else should have been done. I want to draw attention to early-day motion 849, a second one with fewer than 50 signatures. I referred to it in an intervention earlier. That early-day motion, which was also tabled by the right hon. Member for Leicester, East, is about the video that I have not seen but that was clearly the bedtime viewing of the hon. Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford—““SS Experiment Camp””. It was tabled more than three weeks ago, but as of last night it had only 10 signatures. Again, despite the hon. Member for Canterbury expressing his deep concern about that item to the Prime Minister on 20 February, his signature is not on the motion; no doubt he will assure us that he is going to put that right at the end of this debate. It is worth reflecting on the fact that early-day motion 983, which deals with the cost of drinks and confectionery in cinemas and was tabled much more recently, already has 32 signatures. That is indicative of the interest that Members of all parties have as regards issues of real concern. It may be that both early-day motions will, in due course, reach the magic number of 50. However, the question is what would happen in the period between when the motion was first tabled and when the magic number of 50 eventually arrived, triggering the appeal and suspending sales. Bearing in mind the fact that hon. Member for Canterbury has not yet got round to signing early-day motions from before Christmas, that could take weeks, during which huge amounts of publicity would be given to the item concerned. We heard earlier about the example of ““Inside Linda Lovelace””, and ““Lady Chatterley's Lover”” sold millions of copies as a result of the publicity relating to the trial. I am certain that this procedure would achieve the exact opposite of what anybody might want to achieve. It would create massive publicity, with names of right hon. and hon. Members who had not signed the early-day motion appearing in newspapers up and down the land and pressure being applied, and sales would rocket. In practical terms, how would MPs come to know about the concerns of their constituents and other people? As I say, there would be pressure from newspapers, but there would also be pressure from groups that have not even seen the item they are worried about. It is worth noting that huge concern was expressed about two programmes that were recently on television— ““Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel”” and ““Undercover Mosque””—before their even having been screened. Yet once they had appeared on our screens, many people who had protested and said how disgraceful it was that Channel 4 was going to show them were much quieter. We should be confident that we have a proper and careful procedure for Ofcom, the independent regulator, to follow. Another good example of members of the public taking up extreme positions about things that they have not seen is the film ““Dogma””, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, among others. That film was protested about by a large number of people from a group within the Catholic church, more than 2,500 of whom complained to the BBFC, saying that it was blasphemous and anti-Roman Catholic and demanding that it be banned. None of those complaining had actually seen the film, which was passed with a 15 certificate. When the BBFC contacted the Archbishop of Westminster's office about it, the people there did not think it was blasphemous, were not remotely worried that it was in any way anti-Roman Catholic, and encouraged the people who had complained to go to see it. I am worried that there would be similar whipped-up campaigns based on the prejudice of people who had not seen the film concerned. I would be deeply concerned about the system of early-day motions, which has already been brought into question by the hon. Member for North Thanet, being used in such a process. It is important that such issues are dealt with by an independent body. It is right and proper that Parliament has a say in setting the framework for that body's work. It is right and proper that a Select Committee can scrutinise any appointments, and even that it has a veto. It is right that Parliament, through the Secretary of State, makes the appointment. Going beyond that to use the approaches suggested by the hon. Member for Canterbury would be a step too far. However, he wants to go still further. The hon. Gentleman wants Parliament to be involved in scrutinising, and effectively vetoing, the guidelines that apply to videos, DVDs and some video games. He is proposing that that could be done in the way he describes in the Bill. However, we come back to the notion ““If it ain't broke, don't fix it.”” I am not aware of wide- scale dissatisfaction with the current arrangements. I have acknowledged that the opinion polling has produced mixed results, but in all polls the majority favour the current arrangements. As we have heard already, those arrangements were put into place in 2005, based on a 2004 consultation. The BBFC is already planning and undertaking the consultation that will inform the 2009 guidelines. I have no doubt that in the period between the 2004 work and now, there will have been some changes in public opinion, and I have no doubt whatsoever that those will be reflected in the results. It will be for the BBFC to ensure that it reflects changes in public opinion—there may be increased concerns of the sort set out by the hon. Gentleman and others. The BBFC will be able to reflect those concerns in the revised guidelines.