For example, Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, has cited two examples of the sort of thing that the present law might criminalise: "We refuse to accept that there's no connection between rap lyrics calling on people to kill homosexuals, or BNP literature describing gay people as paedophiles, and the epidemic of anti-gay violence taking place on Britain's streets." Well, the first, being incitement to murder (if it is; because some people are very reluctant to consider rap music as any kind of art, to concede that it plays with narrative voice in sophisticated ways) is already covered by existing legislation. It's already a crime to incite murder, whether of a gay person or Jack Straw, so there is no need to incite fear and loathing of Eminem to boot.
The second example Summerskill gives is more debatable, though. Should the BNP be allowed to claim that gay people are paedophiles? If they are prevented from doing so, might that not inflate the sense of embattlement and resentment off which they feed?
Consider in analogy the nasty little cult of Holocaust denial. David Irving was disgraced and defeated not by being locked up in Austria, but long before: he was refuted and humiliated in an open court, during his libel action against Deborah Lipstadt, that gave him every opportunity to defend his position.
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