Curious Snippets

Lord Pearson of Rannoch is once again wearing his underwear outside his trousers...

Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)

moved Amendment No. 129:

After Clause 2, insert the following new Clause—

"Xenophobia

Notwithstanding any provision of the European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68), nothing in this Act or in the Treaty of Lisbon shall create an offence of xenophobia under which United Kingdom citizens may be prosecuted in the United Kingdom or elsewhere."

Damn right Lord P.

...We must remember the infamous EU arrest warrant which allows British citizens to be automatically extradited to any EU country purely on the say-so of a local magistrate, to stand trial under an alien system, perhaps after a long time on remand, and to face imprisonment for a list of some 32 crimes, one of which is xenophobia, which is not a crime here...

...Those of us who oppose the project of European integration are already often accused of being xenophobes, even in your Lordships' House by otherwise perfectly civilised noble Lords, such as the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, and others whose blushes I will spare. Is it so far-fetched to think of such an accusation being made by our new masters in Brussels? I fear not.

Indeed. Lord Stoddart of Swindon then comes galloping to the aid of Lord P...

I support both amendments. Before I came into the Chamber, I looked up in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionarythe definition of "xenophobia". Volume 2 defines it as follows:

"A deep antipathy to foreigners or to foreign things".

That is all. Are we now to be told by the European Union that we must not have an antipathy to something or to some people? Are we not allowed to dislike other people, even if it is in a way that is perhaps a little extreme? This really is going too far.

The noble Lord, Lord Pearson, showed quite clearly in his opening remarks how such a policy could affect us if it were adopted under the rules of the Lisbon treaty. It could very easily enter our law, which would be against everything that this country has stood for over a long period—although, as a result of some of the legislation which has been enacted during the past couple of decades, people now say to themselves, "Oops, I should not have said that", after saying something which is perhaps not politically correct. We should not tolerate that in a free society.

Absolutely. Taste the freedom being eroded. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression are all under attack. What is worse, our politicians are not only failing to fight for our freedoms, they are complicit in their destruction.

Lord Williamson of Horton shows himself to be a despicable creature of monstrous proportions...

I recall that I made a declaration of interest at the beginning of the Committee stage. I intervene briefly on Amendment No. 129 on xenophobia. I think that I have always been very careful and courteous in my interventions during this long Committee stage, but I am inclined to say that this amendment verges a little on the bizarre. The suggestion here that an offence will be created does not seem to me among the more probable events which may result from the ratification of the treaty of Lisbon. If that is the case, as I believe it is, I think that we should abstain from inserting new clauses. We are in the period of discussion in the Committee where we insert new clauses, some of merit and some of less merit. This clause is certainly among the least probable results of the treaty process.

Yep. He thinks it is not really probable and thus we ought not to bother defending the freedoms absolutely. What a wanker.