Friday, April 25, 2008

Britain's House of Lords blocks "hate speech" law

We read:
" A bill to toughen Britain's hate speech law banning attacks on gays has been defeated in the House of Lords. The bill would have provided for jail sentences up to seven years for anyone convicted of using threatening language on the basis of sexual orientation. The legislation already had passed the House of Commons. The Lords voted 81 to 57 to strip prison sentences from the bill, leaving it toothless.

The vote leaves the Labor government with two choices: either let the bill die, or use a procedural vote in the Lower House to override the Lords. Even some gay rights advocates, including Peter Tatchell, opposed the bill, saying it would hamper free speech. Church leaders also fought the legislation claiming it could be used to silence any criticism of homosexuality from the pulpit.

Comedic actor Rowan Atkinson said that if the bill were enacted it would bar humorists and comedians from caricaturizing gays. The bill was put together with the help of LGBT rights group Stonewall.

Source

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this idiotic bill passes, Britain wouldn't have enough jail space, since gays usually find "any" remark they dislike to be "threatening"! If (and i wouldn't be a bit surprised) the bill does pass, it should be amended to read that, if a gay complaintent makes a charge that turns out to be false, then the gay goes to jail!

Anonymous said...

Can one not buy a seat in the House of Lords by buying a title from an impoverished member of the peerage?

Anonymous said...

Seats in the Upper House (House of Lords) are not for sale, and most members are retired politicians from the House of Commons (the body with the real power), and appointed according to party.
Caligula is a deluded fool if he believes the US is more free than the UK (however that is evaluated over all), or is he just a bigoted chauvinist?!

Anonymous said...

If Blackadder says so, it must be true!

Anonymous said...

But...

Can one still buy a title of nobility? I've always wanted to be a duchess or a baroness.

Anonymous said...

You can always cross dress and become a queen ;-)

Anonymous said...

Annie, wouldn't you rather be the queen mum than a douches or baroness?

Anonymous said...

you can marry a duke and become a duchess, or a baron and be a baroness. The only titles for sale are those that go with some landed properties like "lord of a manor".

Anonymous said...

I think Margaret Thatcher was the last Prime Minister able to grant the heritable title of Baron before this was abandoned, and she gave it to her own husband so she could thereby become Baroness Thatcher. So she got her title for free!

Anonymous said...

Of course I'd love to be the queen mum, but I don't see that happening. The problem with marrying a duke or a baron that is that I'm already married and my husband would look upon that idea with extreme prejudice. As for cross dressing, if I did that I'd become a king.

By the way...

For a massive non sequitur,

Why is it that people who believe in reincarnation always say that in their previous lives they were dukes, duchesses, kings or queens? As Crash Davis asked in Bull Durham, "How come nobody was Joe Schmo from Kokomo?"

Anonymous said...

Annie - another American lady had more ambition than you do (lol). She divorced her husband and got engaged to the Prince of Wales, no doubt hoping to be Queen of England and the British Empire, but as he was "deposed" as King and became Duke of Windsor instead, she at least became a Duchess. So how about getting friendly with Prince William?