Mr. Bean beats Mr. Blair

Britain's House of Lords has gained a rare victory by persuading the House of Commons to defeat a proposal by Tony Blair's Government.

After the Government put a bill on "hate crimes" and "hate speech" through the House of Commons, it went to the House of Lords, where a majority opposed its overreaching provisions as a threat to freedom of speech, and to religious speech in particular.

The Lords amended the bill to protect speech that was merely offensive and not threatening, and to give explicit protection to religious and anti-religious speech. Then, when the bill went back to the Commons, many Labourites joined opposition MPs in an unusual reversal and defeated the Labour Government's attempt to undo the changes.

England may yet endure.