Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I rise to speak to the amendment that I tabled. The noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and I both sit on the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights. I give the Minister the undertaking that we will not move our amendment, even though it is shorter and makes exactly the same sense. However, the Government like to have their own way and put down longer amendments. It struck me that it is deliciously new Labour that the Minister with responsibility for local authorities should remove the blasphemy clauses, aided by Hazel Blears. You could not ask for anything better. On the question of blasphemy, it has always struck me that if Jesus Christ exists, and if Jesus Christ in his Godlike form was capable of creating the universe, then he could quite easily hack the bit of left-wing obscurantism and b-mindedness that writes things such as ““Jerry Springer: The Opera””. If he does not exist, nothing will happen; if he does exist, it is up to him to get hold of the chap who wrote it and make sure that he does time in the diabolical house of correction. The offence is unnecessary. It also seems that the provision applies only to the Church of England, not to the doctrines of the Roman church, as far as I can gather. You can be just as rude and insulting as you like about the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, papal infallibility, or what the Church of Rome says about contraception; you can be blasphemous about those without any possibility of being prosecuted. Blasphemy is a crime that is open to intense mockery. As the Minister said, something that is open to mockery and has been used only four times since 16-something-or-other has no place on the statute book. The Church of England is quite capable of looking after its own; it is a great and wonderful institution which has been a great influence on our society from the Reformation onwards. It has on the whole been an influence for the better, but, like all human institutions, it has on occasion—unlike another church, which claims infallibility—been fallible. That is why I like the Church of England, even when it does nasty things to the Book of Common Prayer. Please let us now get rid of the crime of blasphemy. It is unnecessary and otiose.