Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport

Part of Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:45 pm on 8 January 2004.

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Photo of Tom Harris Tom Harris Labour, Glasgow Cathcart 2:45, 8 January 2004

I rise briefly in defence of the comma, and specifically to talk about amendment No. 52. One of the joys of serving on Committees is that, as someone who is not a trained lawyer, and therefore probably in a minority, I find it interesting to look at how syntax and punctuation can change the meaning of sentences. I was given as a Christmas present by my son a book by Lynne Truss called, ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves''. At the risk of boring the Committee, I should explain that the title is based on a story of a panda who walks into a cafe, orders and eats a sandwich, and then stands up, takes out a gun, fires two shots in the air and walks out. When the waiter asks him why he is doing that, the animal says, ''I'm a panda, look it up,'' and throws the waiter a badly punctuated dictionary. The definition of panda says, ''Eats, shoots and leaves.'' Amendment No. 52 would insert a comma after the word ''identity'' which would render the sentence completely different from that in the clause as drafted and mean that establishing the person's identity would be an option. We should not frame measures that allow people who come into

the country to establish which country they came from and perhaps their citizenship but not to establish who they actually are. Surely, the point of the Bill is to identify who individuals are. It is far easier to impersonate a citizen of a specified country than it is to impersonate a specific individual. If the amendment were accepted it would undermine the point of the clause.