---

Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

I do not follow the Home Secretary’s argument that it is possible to dissociate criticism or intense dislike of a religion from intense dislike of the person who practices it. The word ““hatred”” simply means intense dislike. Where in the statute is the difference made clear? It seems to me that once someone intensely dislikes the religion itself and criticises it for that reason, it follows inevitably that that person intensely dislikes whoever is practising it. The only mechanism for which there will be no prosecution is the Attorney-General’s discretion. We are passing very wide-ranging law, and then leaving it to the Attorney-General to restrict its scope.