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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My hon. Friend referred to ““The Merchant of Venice””. I believe that the play is anti-Semitic, although Shakespeare did not intend that when he wrote it. However, it reflected the ingrained anti-Semitism in Christianity that has, I hope, been seriously undermined in the years since the holocaust. It is interesting that no attempt has ever been made under the provisions of the incitement to race hatred laws to stop a production of the play—rightly, because any attempt to do so would be ridiculous.