The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

An Evaluation of Governments' Records 175
United Kingdom is a party and that in practice there will
be no abuses of power, If it is borne in mind that the
state has hitherto been unable fully to professionalise the
Prison Service, it is remarkably naive to take it on trust
that some or other "security" service will be nearly as
well trained or as effective as the incipient profession of
prison officers.
The United Kingdom has become a plural society, but
there has been no general legislation to end discrimination
on religious grounds. Obviously legal rules cannot
abolish prejudiced attitudes, but they can at least ensure
that those of different religions are generally equally
treated and able freely to observe the practices entailed
by their faiths, always provided that they do not harm
others. Appropriate areas for consideration of legislative
intervention are religious holiday entitlements, measures
safeguarding choice of garb, whether at work or
elsewhere and repeal of the law of blasphemy. Amendment
of the Public Order Act is also needed to remove
technical defences based on lack of intention to provoke
disorder where an offensive statement, known by the
speaker or writer to be likely to provoke disorder (and
irrespective of whether any such remark was antireligious,
racist, sexist, or exhibiting a particular political
bias) was made or circulated. Admittedly, such an
extension of the criminal law would impact upon
freedom of speech and could be construed as encouraging
religious or other extremists to respond with
violence, thus automatically rendering criminal continued
public expression of the views violently protested
against. The answer to such an objection (namely, that
this would give an effective future veto on the
subsequent making of such statements) is that the
Director of Public Prosecutions should evenhandedly
prosecute both those who engage in or incite others to
violence and those who provoke disorder by their