Letter: The people who deny Holocaust

Sir: I have no time for people who deny the Holocaust. However, if we rely on criminal law to protect us from such people we enter on a slippery slope. If we justify invoking the criminal law on the grounds that this is very important, on what leg do we stand should we wish to oppose an attempt by John Major to criminalise the view that unemployment has not fallen, or by Cardinal Winning to criminalise the view that abortion is not murder? Moreover, we cannot be certain of any view if we are not free to test it.

In reaching for the criminal law Tony Blair is showing the same fatal weakness for compulsion which he showed in his Big Issue interview. This weakness encourages me to believe that he deserves to join Margaret Thatcher amongst the great enemies of Liberalism.

Earl RUSSELL

Liberal Democrat Social Security Spokesman.

House of Lords

London SW1