Parliament bows to common sense and kicks out another of the Blairite attempts to curb our liberties. The government lost two votes on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, with opposition and Labour backbenchers uniting to maintain the House of Lords amendments.
The Commons confrontation followed a series of defeats inflicted on the bill by peers in a bid to safeguard freedom of speech.
The peers said only "threatening words" should be banned by the bill, not those which are only abusive or insulting.
They also called for the offence to be intentional and specified that proselytising, discussion, criticism, insult, abuse and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice would not be an offence.
Ministers had urged MPs to reject the Lords' amendments and back instead a government compromise instead.
A marker for ID cards, one hopes.