THE MIRACLE OF HOW GOD HELPED TO DEFEAT RELIGIOUS HATRED BILL IN BRITAIN It is now several weeks since the government suffered their dramatic shock defeat over the Religious Hatred Bill. An analysis of exactly what happened on the day of the vote reveals new details of the true extent of the miraculous result and for which we should give God the glory.

In all, 565 men and women voted on the fate of the government’s Religious Hatred Bill. The Bill which threatened religious freedoms and looked set to cause division and increase religious intolerance in Britain, was finally beaten by just one single vote.

Almost every single Conservative and Liberal Democrat MP turned up to vote against the Bill. William Hague and his team who had been in Europe on EU business flew back that evening just in time for the vote. The Liberal Democrats thought the vote was so important that they brought back MPs Charles Kennedy and Mark Oaten for the vote (both had previously been keeping a low profile after periods of bad press). Every single Lib-Dem and Conservative MP that turned up to vote, voted against the Bill.

In total, 21 Labour MPs had the courage to vote against the Bill. Each of those 21 people defied the Labour Party whip who issued the strongest possible demand to Labour MPs to do as they are told and vote for the Bill. Defying such an demand comes with a cost – the 21 MPs risked their careers and should be thanked and commended for their bravery.

Dramatically, 48 Labour MPs did not even vote on the night. For many of them, this will have been because they decided, on conscience, that they could not support the Bill, but nor could they go the whole way and vote against their own party. For between 15 and 25 MPs, the sole reason they were not present was because their own party had told them to go to Scotland to fight in a by-election (which Labour lost in another shock defeat)

because it was thought that Labour were going to win the Religious Hatred Bill by such a large margin.

Undoubtedly contributing to the victorious outcome was the tactic of the Conservative Party, who made it appear that only a few of their MPs were in Westminster at the time of the vote and that they were not treating the Bill as a priority. This lulled Labour into a false sense of security. Behind the scenes the Conservatives worked hard so that at the last minute all their MPs turned up to vote against the Bill.

As was mentioned in the last e-mail, the most notable person absent from the vote was Tony Blair. He was apparently told by the Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong, that his vote was not needed because Labour were going to win easily!

The fact the Bill was defeated by one vote means that every single vote was significant. Thus it was invaluable that many of the smaller political parties courageously opposed the Bill. The parties realised the dramatic significance of the legislation and their votes helped defeat the Bill. The Northern Irish DUP contributed 9 votes against the Bill. The SDLP contributed 1 vote. Plaid Cymru contributed 3 votes, the SNP 5 votes, and Dr Richard Taylor, an Independent, also contributed 1 vote.

Only half an hour before the debate on the Bill started, Christians were inside the House of Commons working hard to convince MPs to oppose the Bill. Within that last half an hour, those Christians managed to secure a further 9 votes against the Bill by explaining the dangers of the legislation and the threat to freedom of speech. Again, without the last minute confirmation of those votes, the government’s Bill would have become law.

Without any one of these contributions to the campaign and to the vote, the law would have been passed, and today, Christians would be facing the threat of police arrest, investigations, imprisonment, and negative media coverage simply for expressing their faith.

If the vote had even been tied then the Speaker of the House of Commons would have had the casting vote. By convention he would have gone with the government and the Bill would have been passed. The fact that the vote was so close, and yet was won, shows the value of the dedicated prayers, lobbying, leadership and action of so many Christian organisations and individuals. Ultimately, the closeness of the vote means that no one group or individual can claim the victory – the victory was incontrovertibly in God’s hands.

Source: Interprayer

March 2006