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Terrorism Bill

I would like to glorify the Spaniards who helped the Duke of Wellington evict the French from the Peninsular in 1808 to 1814. I think I would like to glorify the French Resistance who resisted the Germans in 1940. I think I would like to glorify those brave Afghans who resisted the Russians in the 1970s and 1980s. I think I would like to glorify those from East Timor who resisted the Indonesian troops. The history of what people call terrorism and what people call freedom fighters always depends upon which side you are. In all civil wars and resistances, extremely nasty things happen. They always get called ““terrorists”” by the authorities, and ““guerrillas”” by the freedom fighters. I quite accept, as one my noble friends said earlier, that when you have a constitutional way out, armed resistance becomes unjustifiable. Where there is no constitutional way out, however, guerrilla warfare, resistance behind the lines, blowing people up, blowing bridges up, ambushing sentries, killing Heydrich in Prague—which the Nazis called a terrorist act—all of those things are eminently praiseworthy. Am I going to go to prison, or be prosecuted, because I say that those people were glorious patriots? The noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, shakes his head, but that is what the Bill says, and it says it loud and clear. This has been pointed out before, and it will be pointed out again. We have surely got all the powers we need to prosecute people for doing naughty things. We do not actually need this Bill; it is a piece of flannel. I accept that I will be accused of making a Second Reading speech on that last point. On a complete side issue, it is an enormous pity that the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland of Asthal, does not have either the Attorney-General or the Lord Chancellor to help her. In spite of the fact that she is doing jolly well, she is not doing well enough to persuade us, and a lot of the rest of the Committee, to go along with some of this ill-thought-out waffle and muddle with which the Government are presenting us today.