UK: Government defeated as Lords vote to make misogyny a hate crime

Article here. Excerpt:

'The government also suffered a defeat over a separate issue when peers voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales - a move that would enable judges to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation.

The proposal was added to the bill as an amendment against the government's wishes and led by Conservative peer Baroness Newlove - a former victims' commissioner.

Baroness Newlove said: "As a society we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist or homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women."

Crossbench peer Baroness Fox, the former Brexit Party MEP, argued against the proposal, saying the data collected would be "almost entirely based on subjective perceptions" of what constituted misogyny.

She warned that police resources would be wasted if they got "tangled up in the reporting and monitoring of stats and data which I do not think is reliable".'