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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

I shall deal with the last point later. On his first point, the examples that I provided are not covered. Is the hon. Gentleman seriously suggesting that there should be only one criminal law to deal with every criminal act that is committed? The reality is that if he were arrested for murder, he could be charged with any of four criminal offences. I am going to continue. The whole point is to protect a group of people who do not fall under a single racial identity. That is why so many senior police officers, including the recently retired Metropolitan Police Commissioner, believe that current legislation is inadequate and support the new offence. The hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) advanced the second objection—that the Bill will restrict freedom of speech. The idea that we have complete and unrestricted freedom of speech is nonsense. Article 10 of the European convention on human rights—the article that deals with free speech—also talks about the ““rights and responsibilities”” that go with free speech in civil society. Free speech has a number of restrictions to ensure the smooth running of society. Examples where such restrictions apply include pornography, intellectual property, race hatred, defamation and national security issues. If Voltaire were inciting hatred on grounds of race, I would not fight to the death to defend his right to say that. The fact that the new offence will not be in breach of our article 10 obligations is confirmed by the support for the proposals of such groups as the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Law Society, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, Justice—the hon. Member for South-West Devon (Mr. Streeter) was wrong to say that Justice opposes the Bill; it supports it—and the UN Human Rights Committee. In fact, what many international human rights organisations say is that by failing to protect our most vulnerable citizens, we are in breach of our obligations as a State. The third objection is that this is a sop to the Muslim community, giving them preferential treatment because of the Iraq war. I heard a new one today; apparently, it is blasphemy law for Islam by the back door. Well, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson) said earlier, the first time the then Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) tried to introduce this legislation was in winter 2001—more than a year before the war with Iraq—so I am afraid that the chronology of those who make that point is simply wrong. If British Muslims really were as powerful and influential as the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) suggests, one would have thought that they could have persuaded the Government not to fight the Iraq war in the first place. Not only the Government and Labour Members believe in equality before the law for all of our communities. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Church of England, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, the Hindu Council UK, the network of Sikh organisations, the CRE and other organisations all support the Bill. They are hardly a bunch of Muslim fundamentalists looking for preferential treatment or special favours, or seeking a new blasphemy law for Muslims by the back door. The fourth point that has been made is that the Bill will lead to unemployment—of comedians, artists and theologians—and possibly to their prosecution. That is just humbug. The new law will not stop anyone offending, criticising, ridiculing or taking the p*** out of faiths. Police vans will not wait outside comedy clubs, and censors will not go through everything that is said, written or done. Nobody wants to stop our irreverent sense of humour flourishing. The bigots are the only ones who have anything to fear from the Bill. The Bill is about protecting people from hatred, and not about protecting faiths from criticism. That goal is entirely in keeping with Britain’s unique record of religious and racial tolerance. A society should be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable members. A loophole that allows religious hatred to be propagated must finally be closed. This Bill closes that loophole, and I urge the House to support it.