Here’s a stirring piece by Polly Toynbee in the Guardian about today’s Commons’ debate on the Religious Hatred bill. Money quote:
Free speech is fragile: laws change cultural climates in the media and inside minds. Police who can, absurdly, question Sir Iqbal Sacranie for his homophobic views yet never arrest him for his inflammatory remarks over Salman Rushdie, will make no sense of this law. Police stations will be besieged by insulted zealots brandishing ancient books. Only the attorney general can agree an actual prosecution. Refusing will add offence to the already offended.
It’s an absurd bill, a bad bill, a deeply illiberal bill. Hopefully MPs will boot it out.
Update: The MPs did the right thing by endorsing the Lords’ amendments – and curiously, when the time came for the decisive vote, Tony Blair was nowhere to be found!!