Predictions that the Labor Government’s anti-discrimination bill would become law this year were coupled today with announced plans of members of Parliament to seek amendments to strengthen the measure. The bill, designed primarily to ban discrimination against Negroes in public places, would also prohibit discrimination or incitement against Jews. The measure received a first reading in the House of Commons yesterday.
The bill provides a penalty of 50 pounds ($140) for the first offense and of 100 pounds ($280) for subsequent offenses. The measure creates a new offense punishable by law–incitement to racial hatred at public meetings or in public places by spoken or written word. Maximum penalties for violation would be six months’ imprisonment or a fine of 200 pounds ($560) or both on summary conviction. The measure would make it an offense to refuse service in hotels and in restaurants but not in lodging houses or clubs. Bars, theaters, dance halls, stadiums, swimming pools and "other places of public entertainment" would be covered.
Because the clause banning racial incitement involved issues of free speech, the bill does not mention religion specifically. Passage would not alter the current freedom to attack a religion or its doctrine. British legal experts hold that anti-Semitism is covered in the measure because the bill goes beyond religion and protects members of an ethnic group whether they are believers or not.
One clause in the measure incorporates the lessons developing from incitements against Jews by British neo-Nazis at public gatherings in recent years. Under present law, police usually do not intervene until a disturbance takes place on such occasions, usually as a result of protests or stronger reactions from members of the offended group at the meetings.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
