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Terrorism Bill

My Lords, my name is attached to all the amendments in the group and I endorse everything said by the noble and learned Lords, Lord Lloyd of Berwick and Lord Morris of Aberavon, and the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. Including the glorification of terrorism in the Act is at best useless and at worst could cause serious problems. It is primarily useless because it seems to me to add nothing whatever. It is not a sensible definition of indirect terrorism and it is only a limited feature of that at best. There is no question that it would not have appeared in the Bill if the Prime Minister had not said last summer that we should legislate against the glorification or condoning of terrorism. Sensibly, the   condoning of terrorism was left out, but the glorification of terrorism was left in. Indeed, it found its way into the Labour Party manifesto for the general election. It is entirely pointless here. The definition by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, is much better and simpler. The whole question of glorification is simply going to confuse and trouble the courts. The definition is amazingly wide. As I said in Committee, it is clear that if one is looking at past acts of terrorism within the very wide definition of terrorism in the 2000 Act, the War of American Independence is a terrorist act. When one then looks at glorification, it includes celebration, so that act of terrorism is celebrated every 4 July, on Independence Day. It is only a slight stretch of the imagination to suggest that the Chancellor of the Exchequer might be encouraging terrorism by saying that 4 July is something we ought to emulate by having a national day of our own. That is perhaps going a little further than the courts would be prepared to go, but I mention it because it illustrates the general unsuitability of using glorification of terrorism, which can in the right circumstances be a test of whether there is an indirect intention, but it is absolutely wrong to make it the sole method of encouraging terrorism. I know it is not an exhaustive method, but it is the sole method that is referred to in the Bill. That is entirely inappropriate. All these references to glorification should be removed from the Bill.