History
- 11 July 2005 - The bill was passed by the House of Commons and was passed up to the House of Lords.
- 11 October 2005 - The bill was read by the House of Lords as a 300-strong group of protesters demonstrated in Hyde Park. Forty-seven Lords spoke in the debate, of whom nine came out in support of the bill.
- 31 January 2006 - The Commons supported an amendment from the House of Lords by 288 to 278, contrary to the position of the Government. A second Lords amendment was approved by 283 votes to 282 in the absence of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had apparently underestimated support for the amendment. This made the bill the Labour government's second defeat since the 2005 election. The Tories' strategy to win the vote was inspired by the episode "A Good Day" of the American television series The West Wing.
- 16 February 2006 - The Bill received Royal Assent to become the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 c. 1.
- 1 October 2007 - The act came partially into force with the publication of a Statutory Instrument. Remaining provisions awaiting commencement are the insertion of sections 29B(3), 29H(2), 29I(2)(b) and 29I(4) into the Public Order Act 1986:
A complete summary of the voting in the various divisions of this bill may be found at www.publicwhip.org.uk.
Read more about this topic: Racial And Religious Hatred Act 2006
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—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)