Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I speak as a Christian, but, far from the chill factor, I realise that in another era I would probably have been burnt at the stake, because I hold very different views. I absolutely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, that freedom of speech is extremely important. Voltaire said, ““I may disagree fundamentally with what you are going to say, but I will fight to the death to ensure that you are able to say it””. The real worry that I have with the amendment moved by the noble Lord is the flip side of its wording. I believe that it gives freedom to those who are homophobic to use it in a homophobic way. That is why I support the government amendment and what the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, said. I worked for many years in Childline. One of the major problems that children brought to us was bullying and, in particular, homophobic bullying. Those children experienced extraordinary things being said to them in the playground, whether they were gay or not. Very often, that was allowed by teachers because they found it difficult to know how to manage or stop homophobic bullying. We have discussed that in the House before. Many of your Lordships have agreed that homophobic bullying, whether the child is homophobic or not, is unacceptable, because of what that does to children. When they grow up, they believe that it is all right to use that sort of language. I, too, have received correspondence from the mother whose child was kicked to death. In my time, I have met with other people who have received severe beatings because they were homosexual. My great worry is that the wording of the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, would give licence to that, because it would appear in the Bill. If there were some other wording that did not include the issue of behaviour, I could support the noble Lord in saying that we all have a right to freedom of speech. As I said, I may disagree fundamentally with that point of view, but I believe that those who have a different religious perspective and point of view have a right to put it. With that, I shall be supporting the Government's position.