Laws outlawing race hatred and discrimination protect people, whereas the Government's Bill will have the effect of ring-fencing ideas, some of them barmy or downright offensive.Personally, I have very little time for the Bible and find the Koran dull and repetitive, as well as containing passages that strike me as prima facie examples of anti-Semitism or incitement to hatred of Christians and non-believers. Is it logical? No, because the Government defends its controversial Bill on the grounds that religion is analogous to race, pointing out that we already have laws banning incitement to racial hatred. Instead, in the week that MPs return to Parliament from the summer recess, I want to pose a question: is there a fair-minded backbencher who cares enough about the welfare of women to introduce a private member's bill outlawing incitement to gender hatred?After all, the Government is in the middle of legislating to ban incitement to religious hatred in this country, claiming it is absolutely necessary to defend religious minorities; bizarrely, ministers have shown no interest in extending similar protection to women, even though we make up slightly more than half the population.Is this fair? Of course not. I would chart the vertiginous drop in convictions for rape, to a point where there is virtually no legal sanction on serious sexual assault in this country. To the horrors in the original text, I would add a string of cases in which divorced or separated men have murdered their former partners and children, and the phenomenon of honour killings in which fathers, brothers and uncles murder female relatives who have supposedly brought "shame" on their families through their choice of dress, friends or partners.But I don't need to do all that, because the evidence of the lethal nature of misogyny is all around us.
I'd include statistics that weren't available in 1989, such as Home Office research suggesting that one woman in four will be a victim of domestic violence, while two are killed each week by current or former partners. It has occasionally crossed my mind that I should publish updates, a quarterly bulletin identifying the latest and most egregious insults based on gender. Eminem would get a place, for lyrics that glorify the murder of women, and bands such as Prodigy (for "Smack My Bitch Up") and rap stars who think it's cool to dismiss women as "hos". He attracts more publicity than Jude Law. More from Steve Richards. Nearly 20 years ago, I published a book called Misogynies, in which I catalogued the routine denigration and degradation of women: everything from sexist jokes and song lyrics to football crowds in the north of England turning the Yorkshire Ripper into a folk hero. In the newspapers, various blondes associated with the minister fill the pages.
His affair with Kimberley Quinn is the subject of a play, a musical and a television film. The reputation of David Blunkett continues to oscillate wildly. He was riding high for many years, fell dramatically before the last election, rose again in the immediate aftermath and now he stumbles once more His broader image changes too. Not so long ago he was the stern Home Secretary, bringing to his brief a moralistic fervour as he lectured us on the bleak consequences of misbehaviour Now his alleged misbehaviour causes a stir. They are causing so many people to die, and for no reason." She lifted her eyes to a peeling statue of the Virgin Mary and murmured: "One day, decent people will take the Vatican." Her smile was feeble and bleakly unconvincing.j.hari independent.co.uk More from Johann Hari. He has long damned the "deceitful propaganda" of gay rights campaigners, who promote an "intrinsically evil" act. He believes gay sex leads to "irrational and violent reactions" and thinks "the practice of homosexuality may threaten the lives of a large number of people".