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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord. I was aware of most of his points. However, the last Act dealing with stirring up hatred on the grounds of ideas, expressions and things that have been said is the religious hatred Act. Presumably, one must assume that that was the model on which this Bill was based. The Minister did not suggest anything different. He suggested that because the Government did not think it was necessary to have it in the religious hatred Bill, they therefore did not think it was necessary here. The trouble is that on the first occasion Parliament was of a different view. It may be that in the House of Lords the noble Lord, Lord Lester, might convince the court of his very subtle distinction and, therefore, get it not to make the presumption. I do not question that. But the fact remains that on the face of these recent Acts on a similar topic one does not want to have this vast distinction. I would say to the noble Lord, Lord Alli, who appears to think that there is real mischief in this that the Government do not say that. All that Parliament says is that it is unnecessary. It does not say that it is undesirable or causes trouble. It says that it is unnecessary because it is clear on the words themselves, which it might be if you did not have the contrasting Act.