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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

We all agree on one thing here tonight, and that is that the Minister is a well-intentioned person. However, in the end we are judged not on the width of the Minister’s smile but on the quality of our legislation, and this is a bad Bill. If we pass it into law, we shall be doing the nation a disservice. The Bill is unnecessary and, although the right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson) made a powerful speech, he did not put forward the other side of the story. The Bill is cloaked in uncertainty: it does not define religion or hatred. If we pass it into law, people out there will still not know what they are free to say and what they are not. The Bill is also likely to have unintended consequences. We all want tolerance, harmony and respect between the religious communities in this country, but the Bill is likely to provoke the opposite. The Government have said that they will listen to reasonable objections, but they have done so with closed ears. If the Bill becomes law, we shall stumble into darkness and uncertainty, and I urge the House to reject it.