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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

No. My right hon. Friend makes the case that when it comes to incitement of hate-crime offences, there is a balance to be struck between free speech and the needs of those who require protection from the consequences of incitement to hatred. I think that the House got the balance right when it voted on the religious hatred law, and that the Government are now pretty close to getting it right on homophobic hatred, since the Secretary of State for Justice agreed with me on Second Reading that it should be treated in broadly the same way as religious hatred. I am sure that more will be said on that point. However, there is no balancing issue here. There is no balancing argument about the human rights and other rights of others because the blasphemy offences are not purporting to defend the rights of others. They are there to defend the tenets of the Church of England from attack. We should not have criminal offences preventing such attacks.