| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Gerald Howarth: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. Is she trying to suggest that those of us who oppose the measure with the utmost vehemence that we can command somehow endorse what went on at the Admiral Duncan pub? If that is what she is suggesting, it is an utter disgrace. However strongly we feel about the argument, I know no one who could endorse such activity. It is an outrage.
Ann Keen: However uncomfortable the hon. Gentleman may feel about my remarks--I understand that many people feel uncomfortable having to listen to such remarks--he should recognise that the language sometimes used in the debate, the scaremongering and intolerance of which I have become aware since entering the House, will breed hatred and contempt.
Mr. Howarth: Will the hon. Lady give way again?
Ann Keen: No, I am sorry. I must make progress. Many hon. Members want to speak.
Blackmail is a crime, and blackmailers love any form of inequality before the law. Young people have been blackmailed not to report abuse. The law as it stands would deter any young person from reporting abuse. The hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) was distressed by my comments about the bombing and about intolerance. I, like many of my hon. Friends and many others outside the House, find it distressing that we are insufficiently concerned about young people being abused. If we vote in favour of equalising the age of consent, the key word for me and many of my hon. Friends is "consent".
During such debates in the House, I have heard some of my colleagues having their personal sex life openly discussed, sometimes with great humour and sometimes causing people to feel uncomfortable. People outside wonder why any adult's sex life should be discussed in
open debate. As a heterosexual woman, I do not recall ever having to explain or justify any of my actions, as long as they were legal and occurred with my consent.
My nursing background helps me to observe and study human behaviour. Some of the human behaviour that I have witnessed can lead me only to the conclusion that some hon. Members and certainly some in the other place get great satisfaction from discussing other people's sex life, using colourful language and distorting the facts. It brings a new dimension to "The Jerry Springer Show" and suggests a new kind of show, in which all sorts of people queue up to confess the things that they like or dislike.
I believe that people's personal sex life is their own, provided that it is conducted with consent. All responsible Members of this House and another place should take that on board.
On the wider topic of health and health care, health is a sense of total well-being--feeling comfortable with oneself, as well as a certain standard of physical health. We know that at least one in six of us suffers from some sort of mental health problem. In our early teens, life is difficult enough. It is pretty difficult sometimes when we are over 50, but not as complicated as it is in our early teens. Young people need the opportunity to be themselves and to discuss who they are.
We do not choose our life style, nor are we taught it. To all those who are worried about section 28, I shall quote from Victoria Coren's "Diary" piece in The Observer on 6 February. I wish the thought had occurred to me, but I must give her the credit. She mentions the fears that if section 28 is repealed, young people will be taught to become homosexuals. I agree with her when she comments:
Health education is crucial. The hon. Member for Billericay (Mrs. Gorman) raised the issue of AIDS and HIV. There is indeed a serious rise in the number of cases, and it is occurring in the heterosexual community, which has become complacent.
The all-party group on AIDS supports the lowering and equalising of the age of consent, as do the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, NCH Action for Children, Childline, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Barnardos.
When we want information, we go to the experts. We listen to their advice and read what they have written. Any sensible person makes a judgment on that basis. Why, then, on this issue, cannot we accept the advice of those leading children's and young people's organisations? I should like someone who disagrees to give me an answer. Why do we refuse to accept the advice of bodies such as the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and the Health Education Authority? I ask myself that as a nurse and as a mother.
In my family, I have the greatest gift: I know my son. All hon. Members, regardless of whether they are married or have children, are part of a family. People who oppose the Bill without question offend families in this country. That is so serious that I have to say, along with others, that I am fed up of humility. I do not see the need to beg constantly for this change to be made or to say that we will listen to this or consider that.
Mr. Simon Hughes (Southwark, North and Bermondsey):
I pay tribute to the work that the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ann Keen) has done on this issue--not only today but since she has been a Member of the House. I also pay tribute, without reservation, to the work of Mrs. Edwina Currie, who is no longer a Member of the House. She introduced the prospect of change to us in 1994, and it is a tribute to the system that Back Benchers can still put issues on the Front-Bench agenda.
I shall be brief as many Members want to speak. We have three issues before us. Should we equalise the age of consent? Should we remove the stigma of criminality from under-16s who become involved in sexual activity? Should we have a law to deal with the abuse of a position of trust? My colleagues and I support each of those propositions.
At both elections since the creation of the Liberal Democrats in 1988, our party has stood on a manifesto of equality on the age of consent. For us, that has been a self-evident consequence of arguing for an equal society. We have always agreed that colleagues in the House should be free to vote as they choose, but my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith)--who did my job for the past five years--personally supported such legislation, as did my right hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Mr. Ashdown), our then leader. My right hon. Friend the Member for Ross, Skye and Inverness, West (Mr. Kennedy), our new leader, and I support the Bill.
I echo the point made by the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth about the most important of the Bill's provisions. It is time to move on, and we must conclude that there should be equality for sexual relationships--at 16 in Great Britain and 17 in Northern Ireland, for other reasons. There would thus be equality in both places.
It is important to remember that the proposal is on the agenda partly as a result of events in the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court. The European convention on human rights has also played a part. I refer colleagues to the helpful and succinct House of Commons research paper on this subject and remind them of how we reached this position through the European Court.
In 1994, Euan Sutherland--who lived with his family in Southwark, my borough--brought a complaint to the Commission, arguing that Britain had failed him twice in terms of his rights. As the research paper states, article 8 of the European convention on human rights
The then Government said that it should be possible for Britain to argue that we were entitled to have 18 as the age of consent for gay relationships, but 16 for the rest. The Commission ruled by 14 votes to four that there had been a violation. It had listened to the Government's argument, but did not accept it. As the recommendations of the court were likely to result in a similar judgment, the Government wisely accepted that they should put before Parliament the proposition that the age of consent should be equalised. It seems to me to be beyond argument that under European law, and therefore under law that we are bound to follow, there has be to equality. Although there are many reasons for passing the Bill, we should pass it for that one, if no other.
Mr. Gerald Howarth:
How much of the House's sovereignty is the hon. Gentleman prepared to surrender to such organisations as the European Court of Human Rights or to the European convention on human rights? Is there no limit? Is he prepared to hand over all decision making on those issues to foreign bodies?
"If that's the case, then why are we a nation of people who can't add or spell when teachers expound the benefits of these every day for 16 . . . years?
I definitely go along with that.
And if 'gay lessons' have some special magic power to stick in the young mind, then for heaven's sake let's make the whole syllabus gay! Gay physics, gay geography, gay maths. We'll all be geniuses."
"grants everyone the right to respect for"
their private and family life, their home and their correspondence. Article 14 states that
"the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground".
It listed all the grounds that had been identified.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |