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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I apologise to the House as I thought that it was right to put a question to my noble friend on the Front Bench before she sat down. It led to something that appeared rather abrupt. With the leave of the House, perhaps I may add that in our manifesto commitment, which is, after all, central to the Government’s argument, the centre point of concern is exactly that which has been put by the right reverend Prelate—namely, what has come to be called the ““likely to”” test, in addition to intention. Intention is involved in incitement; a ban on incitement is what we promised. The amended Bill does that, but I understand that the Government may wish to deal with particular words at particular places, with such long amendments. However, the ““likely”” test and the intention test is the core of what we now have, which we should keep.