One is tempted to call that “cause and effect”, but I will not.
This noble House concluded its contentious business somewhat earlier than we had expected last night. I went home and turned on BBC Four, on which there was a most remarkable programme on the Salvation Army in which various officers made some extremely sincere but perhaps contentious statements. One gentleman in particular made the point that anyone who did not believe in Jesus Christ, as many of us do, was in fact
condemned to eternal damnation. Imagine that being said on a street corner or anywhere else. Do we really want to deny people with sincere and genuine beliefs the opportunity of expressing them? I have always felt—although I did not agree with many of the things ascribed to him—that Voltaire had it right when he said, “I detest what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. That really should be implicit in all our legislation.
I find it somewhat difficult to accept that a Conservative Government or—let me correct myself—a Conservative-led Government are prepared to introduce this lower threshold in the Bill. Although my noble friend Lord Faulks said that it was different from the debate that we had on insulting a little over a year ago, and of course in some senses it is, nevertheless it is similar. It is also very different from what was implicit in the Defamation Act that came into force just a week ago today, whereby we introduced legislation—quite rightly, in my view—that makes it more difficult to engage in frivolous and vexatious complaining.
In this particular provision, in this clause of the Bill —much of which I approve of—we are seeking to lower a threshold and in the process place many people in possible danger of having their civil liberties, including their right to speak as they would, taken away from them. Of course I accept, as my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern accepts, that it is right that social housing should be treated differently—of course it is. In his intervention a few moments ago, my noble friend Lord Elton put that point succinctly and correctly.
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At the moment the definition that is in dispute is ring-fenced; here it would not be. I say to my noble friend Lord Faulks that guidance is not legally binding; guidance is not the law. I would also say to my noble friend Lord Faulks—and to my noble friend Lord Taylor, for whom I have the utmost regard—something that I said not so long ago to the Home Secretary. I do not doubt for a moment her good intentions, but it is not just the road to hell that is paved with good intentions. It is crucial that this House, one of the bastions of freedom and civil liberties through the ages, should not weaken the right of our fellow citizens to be able to speak and to annoy.
We are all frequently annoyed. The noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, and I were on the same side in the countryside march. As she knows, we certainly annoyed a lot of people—and those who took a different line certainly annoyed us. But would it be right to slap injunctions on them? Would it be right to curtail that freedom of speech? No, it would not. I absolutely accept that it is not the Government’s intention to catch the street preacher, the carol singer or the Countryside Alliance member, but, of course, one can say two things in response to that. First, if this provision is passed, it passes out of the control of the Government. Secondly, this Government—benign, magnificent, united as it is—is not necessarily going to be in power for ever, much as many of us may regret that.
I really believe that the proposition put before us by the noble Lord, Lord Dear, so eloquently supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, and my noble
and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern, is a modest proposition but one of enormous and far-reaching importance. I beg the Government to accept it, and, in accepting it, to recognise that what they seek to do in this Bill will not be damaged beyond repair; on the contrary, it will be bolstered.