Schedule - Hatred against persons on racial or religious grounds
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
12:30 pm
Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Beaconsfield, Conservative)
It is well established in Parliament that everyone is supposed to have enmity for the Liberal Democrats, although at the moment I find myself in a state of great amity with the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland; indeed, that amity has grown over the successive periods that we have spent in Committee together. The reason why I did not touch on enmity much is that I did not think that it took us much further, but I note the point made by the hon. Member for Rhondda.
I certainly accept that hatred as defined is a state of hostility. Enmity conveys that, but it does not convey the translation of that hostility into violent acts. It does not say that, and we need to bear that in mind. I think that there is universal agreement in Committee that we may think that someone is horrible, but if we are to live in a civil society we cannot punch them in the face, daub their house, throw a brick through their window or—this is something that we can return to—abuse them in the street. The Public Order Act already prohibits that. That is my point and it is why we must be careful. We are putting together a package, and unless we are clear about the constituent ingredients of that package, we shall end up with legislation that everyone says will do one thing although what we have written down is quite different. I hope that we may have an opportunity to tease that out in debate, so I look forward to the Minister’s answer on the definitional point.