Very interesting debates in the House of Commons last night on Lords amendments to aforementioned Bill.
These concerned Lords amendment to the very important provision covering the incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The reference to Hansard is here.
The Government majority (to disagree with the Lords amendment) was 202. Reports on how individual MP's voted here (Public Whip).
The next big debate with a lot of interesting and quite illuminating interventions from Conservative benches (much more than I expected) was on the repeal of the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel (I blogged previously on the debate on this in the Lords).
Hansard here.
The Lords amendment was carried by 321.
In both cases the Government majorities were very large. The ping pong now goes to the Lords where they have a chance to reinstate their earlier amendment. If they do so it will return again to the Commons and so on.
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Showing posts with label blasphemy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blasphemy. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
More good news - blasphemy's gone
Only just found out almost by accident that the House of Lords has accepted a Government amendment to remove the law on blasphemy.
This is good news, although the passage of the Human Rights Act ensures the law on blasphemy can never be used in any case and the Government was clear it was a dead letter - an attempt to bring a case against Jerry Springer the Opera was described as "bordering on the vexatious" by the judge hearing the case. The law on incitement to religious hatred is another reason given for making the move - we have a law protecting believers of different faiths rather than protecting one religion.
The official line from bishops was that they accepted the change and wouldn't vote against it (though some did) but felt that it wasn't the right time to make the change......
Other Lords (some of whom are well known from other debates - e.g. Baroness O'Cathain, who's somewhat of a regular speaker on such matters) opposed the move, some of them refering to the risk there would be a deluge of anti-Christian attacks.
The House of Lords debate is well worth reading as some of the speeches are very well informed.
The blasphemy law was of course famously used against Gay News for inclusion of a thought provoking poem called 'The Love that dare not speak its Name', which lead to the closure of Gay News.
The text of the poem is here (first time I've ever been able to read it, though on doing so I must admit to having some sympathy with the original trial judge on the matter and I definitely think it is outrageous in the offence it will have caused to many believers and straightway we're back onto the territory of thinking about the Danish cartoons and the reaction that had caused).
The whole House of Lords debate can be seen here.
Baroness Andrews' introduction and summing up.
Baroness O'Cathain here
Commentary from the Guardian - When blasphemy bit the dust.
Although a little used law, it's good to get it off the Statute Book before people start using it again.
This is good news, although the passage of the Human Rights Act ensures the law on blasphemy can never be used in any case and the Government was clear it was a dead letter - an attempt to bring a case against Jerry Springer the Opera was described as "bordering on the vexatious" by the judge hearing the case. The law on incitement to religious hatred is another reason given for making the move - we have a law protecting believers of different faiths rather than protecting one religion.
The official line from bishops was that they accepted the change and wouldn't vote against it (though some did) but felt that it wasn't the right time to make the change......
Other Lords (some of whom are well known from other debates - e.g. Baroness O'Cathain, who's somewhat of a regular speaker on such matters) opposed the move, some of them refering to the risk there would be a deluge of anti-Christian attacks.
The House of Lords debate is well worth reading as some of the speeches are very well informed.
The blasphemy law was of course famously used against Gay News for inclusion of a thought provoking poem called 'The Love that dare not speak its Name', which lead to the closure of Gay News.
The text of the poem is here (first time I've ever been able to read it, though on doing so I must admit to having some sympathy with the original trial judge on the matter and I definitely think it is outrageous in the offence it will have caused to many believers and straightway we're back onto the territory of thinking about the Danish cartoons and the reaction that had caused).
The whole House of Lords debate can be seen here.
Baroness Andrews' introduction and summing up.
Baroness O'Cathain here
Commentary from the Guardian - When blasphemy bit the dust.
Although a little used law, it's good to get it off the Statute Book before people start using it again.
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