Clause 1 - Hatred against persons on racial or religious grounds
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
10:45 am
Chris Bryant (Rhondda, Labour)
Of necessity, I must disagree with what the hon. Member for Beaconsfield just said, because the new schedule would add another layer of intentionality that would have to be determined. The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland advanced a suggestion about calling someone a “Muslim bastard”. By his own terms, is calling someone a “Muslim bastard” objectively and clearly using religion as a proxy for race, or might that not be subjective? It would have to be determined whether it was A or B, and, of course, if anybody were questioned, they would claim that they had meant it as a theological rather than a racial comment. That is the problem with the new schedule.