Orders of the Day — Blasphemy Laws (Amendment) Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 24 January 1930.

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Photo of Mr Samuel Roberts Mr Samuel Roberts , Sheffield Ecclesall

I should not have intervened in this Debate but for the speech of the First Commissioner of Works to which we on this side of the House have listened with the most profound astonishment. The right hon. Gentleman seems to think that in this world there is a sort of controversy about the Deity. The right hon. Gentleman leaves out of account the children who need guidance and protection from those who would take away from them their access to the Deity, and bring before them ideas of ridicule and scorn. I do not know whether the First Commissioner of Works heard the speech of the hon. Member for Oxford University (Sir C. Oman) who alluded to the cartoons appearing in the Continental Press introducing obscenity and utter ridicule in regard to religion and religious characters who are held dear and believed in by the vast majority of the people of this country. This Bill would allow those cartoons to appear in the Press in this country, and they could not be stopped. Is that the wish of the First Commissioner of Works?