Derek McDowell (Labour)

The issue raised by Senator O'Toole is of great importance. The primary message that should be sent from this House is one of understanding and solidarity with the people of Denmark and the Danish Government. This is an issue that requires sensitivity and cool heads as well as tolerance. It would be stupid of us as Europeans to suggest that Europe has always been a model of tolerance as regards freedom of expression in matters of religion. On the contrary, over hundreds of years we tore ourselves apart on matters of religion. By no means do we possess the wisdom of Solomon when it comes to this particular issue.

It is difficult, nonetheless, to take lectures from those in Beirut, Damascus and Tehran who have been rampaging for the past few days. It is particularly difficult to take it from PresidentAhmadinejad of Iran, when he demands tolerance on the one hand, while feeling free to preach anti-Semitism and intolerance of Christianity, on the other. While cool heads are now required, there is also a need for frankness. We come from different cultures and have different values. There is a need for frankness between us which, hopefully, will lead to understanding and the tolerance we all seek, in time.

On another issue, I want to refer to the reports published in the last few days on the various tax breaks. These reports are enormously interesting and deserve full debate. They confirm what many of us have suspected for a long time, namely, that we have been making tax-based subsidies available in huge measure to people who do not need them in order to do things that would have happened anyway. That merits debate, perhaps in the context of the Finance Bill. However, if the Leader intends that the House should debate the pensions review in the meantime, perhaps that would also be a good time to have it.