Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I want to make a few observations on this matter. I have noted that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, said that he does not intend to divide the House on this issue. However, I would like to make a few brief remarks. In my opinion, the amendment has a secularising agenda. Before the blasphemy law was repealed in England, the Government held a consultation with the Church of England. I am aware of no such consultation being held with the churches in Northern Ireland in relation to the amendment by the noble Lord, Lord Lester. I am sure that noble Lords are aware that Christianity plays a more prominent role in Northern Ireland society than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Research carried out by the relief agency Tearfund and published on the BBC News website in April 2007 found that 45 per cent of people in Northern Ireland are regular churchgoers. That compares with 15 per cent in other regions of the United Kingdom. A survey of young people in 2007, carried out by the CBBC programme "Newsround", found that 95 per cent of young people in Northern Ireland believed in God, and that 65 per cent of Northern Ireland children prayed most days. Abolishing the offence of blasphemy does not demonstrate neutrality; rather, it contributes to a wider campaign of imposing a secular ideology, which would actually be hostile to religion. There is no neutral ground here. Every society has some cherished beliefs that it protects in law. The amendment would remove the offence of blasphemy from law at the same time as the Government are increasingly adopting hate-speech laws which are, in a sense, a form of replacement. Christianity has profoundly influenced society in Britain and Ireland. Over the centuries, the Christian worldview has given us individual liberty and parliamentary democracy. Christians have been to the forefront of humanitarian endeavours; we need only call on such names as Wilberforce, Shaftesbury and Josephine Butler. I am not aware of a single political party or church denomination in Northern Ireland calling for the offence of blasphemy to be overturned, and certainly none of the major churches—or indeed the minor ones—have been consulted on this. I quite agree with those who say that the best place for this issue, and the best arbiter on it, would be the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is in place, it has 108 Members, and it otherwise crosses all the straddles of political opinion in Northern Ireland.