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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

Indeed. When our Lord drove the moneychangers from the temple he would probably have been arrested under the public order Acts and served with an ASBO, but after that illustration I shall not try to look more closely into such issues. My hon. Friend is right: religious belief has sometimes been promoted in turbulent fashion, which is not to say that we should necessarily allow it to continue too turbulently but we should ensure that our historic traditions of robust discourse are maintained. For those reasons, although there will be limited scope to vote, when the time comes we shall vote against the Government’s motions to disagree with Lords amendments Nos. 2 and 4. We shall invite other Members to join us, and we very much hope that those who have considered and taken part in the debate will realise that we are not trying to cut off the Government’s feet; it is simply that they have got it wrong. It is for the House to send out a simple message. The Government can have their legislation. They can put it on the statute book in the form that the Lords have wisely altered and it can then go forward, but we should get away from the dead end on which we shall embark if we are not careful.