Bill Carmichael: Let's bin these hate crime laws

MODERN Britain is obsessed with protecting certain minorities from any kind of offence. If you're an out and proud homosexual or a radical Islamist, you can expect the full power of the state to swing into action if anyone says anything that has the potential to upset you.

Over recent years, the ancient and hard-won notion of free speech has been subsumed to a rash of "hate-crime" laws that seek to control not only how we act, but also what we say and even what we think.

But one minority can expect little protection – white Christians. Not only can Christians be insulted and ridiculed with impunity, they are targeted – some might say persecuted – under hate crime legislation simply because some of their beliefs are not fashionable or popular.

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The think tank Civitas released a study this week which claimed that prosecutors and the police are unfairly singling out alleged crimes by white Christians, while ignoring similar offences by other minority groups. The report – "A New Inquisition: religious persecution in Britain today" – highlights the case of Liverpool hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang who were prosecuted for a religiously motivated hate crime after they had an argument over breakfast with a Muslim guest.

Once the case reached a criminal court it was quickly thrown out, but the couple still face financial ruin.

Civitas contrasts their treatment with the case of Tohseef Shah, who escaped with a two-year conditional discharge for spray painting "Islam will dominate the world – Osama is on his way" and "Kill Gordon Brown" on a war memorial in Burton-upon-Trent. He would have faced a far harsher sentence under hate crime laws, but bizarrely the Crown Prosecution Service decreed he wasn't motivated by religion.

Can you imagine the CPS reaching a similar conclusion if a white person had sprayed hateful slogans on the walls of a mosque?

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There are plenty of other examples. A retired couple from Lancashire were grilled by police for 80 minutes after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets. A grandmother in Norfolk was warned by police after she objected to the council over a gay pride march. In Cumbria, a street preacher, Dale Mcalpine, was charged with a public order offence after he told a Police Community Support Officer that he thought homosexuality was a sin. Arresting officers told him his beliefs were "against the law".

Throughout British history brave men and women have sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom of worship, conscience and thought. They died so the state would have no right to tell us what to think and the police have no power to decree that certain religious beliefs are against the law.

Such freedoms are the hallmark of a civilised society. The idea of "hate crimes" is an abomination and an affront to ancient liberties and the sooner they are wiped off the statute books the better.

Weight of state

More finger wagging from the nanny state this week – this time from NHS bureaucrats who seem to think they know better than parents what is best for their children.

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In Derby, parents of two five year-olds were sent letters from the director of public health warning that their children were fat and at risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Judging by the pictures in the newspapers the two, Bailey Russell and Gracie Hill, are perfectly normal and not in the least bit overweight. But their body mass index (BMI) lies marginally outside the normal range.

Anyone who has children will know they alternatively fill out and shoot up in an occasionally alarming manner. One minute they are cheerfully chubby, the next as tall and lean as a garden cane. And wise parents know that as long as your children are eating sensibly and getting plenty of exercise, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

That's why, along with many other parents, we've simply withheld permission for the health commissars to measure and weigh our children.