Jacob Christensen

While we are at it, The Guardian reports on the British government’s latest initiative: A law that makes offending or insulting religion a crime with a seven-year prison sentence.Columnists were not amused: The otherwise left-leaning Polly Toynbee calls the proposal an example of the culture of thought-crime and self-censorship.Comedians failed to see the fun as well: Here is a link to Rowan Atkinson’s comment and a brief but interesting quote.

“A person is not guilty of this offence by reason of anything done … so far as it consists of criticising, expressing antipathy towards, abusing insulting or ridiculing any religion, religious belief or religious practice …”"Excellent” I thought. “Fantastic”. “Job done”.Sadly, the next word is “Unless”. “UNLESS he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred or was reckless as to whether religious hatred would be stirred up” (My italics)

The Lords (the members of the House of Lords, that is) were not amused either which is why the proposal has been returned to the House of Commons and is causing some unrest among Labour MPs.But to sum up the case: If Tony Blair has his way, the editor of Jyllands-Posten would soon be behind bars if the newspaper was published in the UK.And so would Dave Allen, were he still among us.Update: Shock defeat for government as the House of Commons vote for the amendments proposed by the House of Lords.