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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I hope that I did not—I did not mean to—interrupt the noble Viscount in a discourteous way. But, first, is he aware that the Human Rights Act requires all existing and future legislation to be read in accordance with human rights, including free speech. That is now a fundamental principle of interpretation. Secondly, as the architect of the free speech clause, which he now seeks to invoke for homophobic hate speech, is the noble Viscount aware that in the entire range of public order offences, the only one in which the free speech clause is included is for religious hate speech, not for race hate speech and not for any stirring-up use of language? Therefore, when he quotes Maxwell and Lord Tenterden, with respect, it is beside the point. He should be focusing on whether the unique need for a free speech guarantee, which was written into the religious hate speech, really applies to homophobic and, therefore, to race hate speech as well.