There are serious reasons to support free speech clause, say Peer and MP

Lord Waddington and David Taylor MP wrote a letter to The Times expressing their views on the Government's request to the House of Commons to repeal an important protection for free speech.

Lord Waddington and David Taylor, Labour MP for North West Leicestershire, wrote a letter to The Times expressing their view on the Government's request to the House of Commons to repeal an important protection for free speech. The letter states:

‘Sir, Today the Government looks set to ask the Commons to repeal an important protection for free speech. It was inserted by the Lords into the new homophobic hatred offence in May 2008 and, after twice trying and failing to remove this free speech protection, the Government reluctantly accepted the position and allowed it to go on the statute book. But then, in a move for which there seems to be no precedent, it introduced a clause in another Bill in the very next session to repeal what they had enacted. The repealing clause came before the Lords in July and the House rejected the measure by a large majority.

‘The free speech clause is supported across the political spectrum. Liberty, the Church of England, Matthew Parris and Rowan Atkinson have also joined the ranks of those who back it. It says: “For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.”

‘Some might say it is so moderate that it merely states the obvious and is therefore unnecessary. But those who say that are closing their eyes to what is happening. Police officers, pressurised by diversity training and furnished with guidance from the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service, seem to feel duty bound to come down like a ton of bricks on people who express disagreement with the behaviour of some gay rights activists, and members of the public are left feeling harassed and frightened. The recent case of the Christian grandmother interrogated in her living room about a letter she wrote to her local council is just the latest example. The politically motivated trampling of free speech is something that should concern us all. It is the duty of Parliament to try to prevent this from continuing to happen.’

(Click here to read the letter)

The letter is following Lord Waddington's article in The Guardian in October this year, in which he explained the dangers of removing the free speech clause and the benefits of keeping it in the law.

(Click here to read the article)

The Government has been defeated on two occasions in the House of Lords over its attempt to repeal the free speech clause. In July this year, Peers voted by 186 to 133 to keep the protection in place.

The clause states:

'For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.'