Excellent editorial in this weekend’s London Sunday Times on Blair’s “rotten” Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. As the Times notes, “If it becomes law, anybody who publishes or says anything ‘likely to be heard or seen by any person in whom it is likely to stir up racial or religious hatred’ will be committing an offence that could make them liable to a seven-year prison term. “
Seven years.
The Times reports comments from Lord Mackay, a former Lord Chancellor (the country’s top law officer), “that anybody criticising radical imams for poisoning the minds of impressionable young men could find themselves subject to prosecution. “
That traditional British liberties cannot be trusted in the hands of Blair has long been self-evident to anyone who has beeen paying the slightest bit of attention to UK politics, but to understand what Blair is up to in this case, read this section from the Times report:
The Bill…”also featured during the election campaign when Mr Clarke — billing himself as “Labour’s home secretary” — wrote to every mosque in the country highlighting Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition to the proposals. There was a clear implication that the government was trying to secure the Muslim vote. “
Hat-tip: The Pub Philosopher, who finds some consolation in the company he may be keeping “in the nick” (as we Brits say).