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Terrorism Bill

My Lords, I add just one thought as a non-lawyer. Amendment No. 20 is almost impossible to understand. The noble Baroness said, with some feeling, that she had done her best to meet the House, and she must be feeling quite fed up that we are not at the moment praising and celebrating—even glorifying—Amendment No. 20. Without any doubt, she has tried hard to meet the House. The question is why her amendment is so totally obscure. The noble Baroness used the phrase more than once that she hoped for an amendment that would make Clause 2 a mirror of Clause 1, in the sense of embodying the concept of intent. Yet this is a distorted mirror, or even an old mirror which is cracked in places. This is not a direct mirror image of the amendment to Clause 1, because it refers to this extraordinary business about an intention not to bring about an act of terrorism—not to directly or indirectly encourage an act of terrorism—but to,"““include persons who will be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by it to commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism””." Why has this strange dog-leg concept suddenly come in here? Would it mean, if I wished to be found guilty, that I would have to scurry round all the more extreme left-wing and right-wing clubs in universities to make sure that there were groups that could be described as wishing to glorify terrorism? Somebody in another place said on this Bill, effectively, that the nature of law is that it needs to be understood by the citizen in order to be obeyed. Most citizens wish to obey the law, but if they are completely incapable of understanding it, then, even with the best of intentions, it is hard for them to do so. I see no reason why the Government should not embrace Amendment No. 17 rather than try to argue a case for Amendment No. 20. I hope that the House will express its desire that the Government should make that change.