David Blunkett last night announced his personal support for the scrapping of Britain's ancient blasphemy law. The home secretary signalled his backing before MPs, while defending his new law against inciting religious hatred.
Although he has refused to respond to calls led by the former Labour cabinet minister Frank Dobson to include the move in his anti-terrorism bill, this announcement means it is likely to happen soon.
"This particular provision has not been used for a very long time. It's my own view that there will come a time when it will be appropriate for the blasphemy law to find its place in history," Mr Blunkett told the Commons human rights committee last night.
The last prosecution in Britain for blasphemy was heard at the Old Bailey in 1976 when a private action by Mary Whitehouse succeeded in securing the conviction of Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News. His magazine published a poem on the sexual love that a Roman centurion felt for Christ on the cross.
An attempt to prosecute the author Salman Rushdie under the same law for his book Satanic Verses failed when the high court ruled that only Christianity, and not other religions, were covered by the ancient law. Mr Blunkett insisted last night that the new proposal to ban incitement to religious hatred would not have caught Mr Rushdie's controversial novel.
The home secretary said that Satanic Verses had not been intended, nor was likely, to stir religious hatred which would then lead to public disorder. He agreed that many Muslims regarded the novelist's book as demeaning to their religion. But he said that would not be sufficient for it to be prosecuted under the new law.
Home Office ministers considered demands to include their repeal of the blasphemy law in the new anti-terrorism bill, but rejected it saying it was outside the scope of the new legislation.
ยท More than 40% of Protestant churchgoers in England and Wales are retired, finds a survey among the main Christian denominations. Based on questionnaires completed last April by 100,000 churchgoers aged 15 upwards, and excluding Roman Catholics, the survey shows that the highest proportion of people going to church are aged around 70. The Church Information for Mission researchers suggested that for every five parishioners attending church weekly, a further three or four probably went monthly. "Forecasts tell us that the country is ageing; it seems the church is leading the way," says the report.