Clause 1 - Hatred against persons on racial or religious grounds
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
11:30 am
Chris Bryant (Rhondda, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman must calm down a little.
I used to be a Hackney councillor, for my sins, which must have been many, and I represented a ward that had large Muslim and Hasidic Jewish communities. My worry about the new schedule is that it would dismantle the current protection for Jews, because the Jewish community in this country is not one community, just as the Christian community in this country is not. There are many different brands of Judaism in this country. We tend perhaps to think only of orthodox and liberal, but the Hasidic Jewish community in east London is a specific community.
If the new schedule were agreed, someone could make it clear when making a speech or producing a leaflet in the Leabridge ward in Hackney that they did not want to attack Judaism, which they thought was a fine religion, but they none the less felt that one should hate people who wear Hasidic clothes and ringlets. Because the person had made it clear that they were not doing that as a pretext for racial hatred, they would not fall foul of the law, whereas clearly they should do so.