Terrorism Bill

I always read Yeats’ great poetry to myself, quietly at home, and never in public. However, I take the point: plenty of writings extol things that could be caught by the Bill. Indeed, history is full of accounts of the dreadful things done by British forces abroad—such as massacres in India and elsewhere—that I would argue could be interpreted as terrorist acts. I am not in favour of prosecuting anyone for talking about such matters, but that is the danger of the Bill. The Home Secretary said that the leaders of the Muslim community in this country have condemned the language used in the demonstration outside the Danish embassy. That is true, but as far as I know, they have not supported the use of the word ““glorification”” in the Bill, because they see the dangers that would ensue. It does not take a huge imagination to work out that utterly ridiculous and perverse prosecutions could be brought under the Bill. However, it is also possible that a very serious prosecution could be brought—for example, in respect of what an imam might have said after Friday prayers. The matter would be dragged through the courts for months. The prosecution case might collapse, or the imam might be declared innocent, but a cause célèbre and a martyr will have been created in the meantime, and community relations will have been damaged. That is the danger of having such loose wording in the Bill.