Home Secretary Theresa May has announced plans to outlaw extremist groups and ban them from spreading their message, even if they do not pose a terrorism threat.
But almost immediately the plan came under fire even from some of her fellow Tory MPs.
Even Prime Minister David Cameron compared the move to the widely disparaged broadcasting ban on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams during the 1980s and early- 1990s.
Mrs May said that hate preachers could be targeted with "Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs)" that would allow courts to restrict their movement and activities.
She said that banning orders would help tackle groups not covered by existing terror laws while the new orders would tackle those "who stay just within the law but still spread poisonous hatred".
Ministers want to prevent young people becoming radicalised in the UK and joining Islamic State (IS) terrorists in either Iraq or Syria, before returning home. Mrs May said that everyone living in the UK was free to exercise their right to freedom of conscience, thought and religion but must realise that living in the country comes with responsibilities to respect British values.
She told the Tory party conference: "You don't just get the freedom to live how you choose to live. You have to respect other people's right to do so too and you have to respect British values and institutions - the rule of law, democracy, equality, free speech and respect for minorities.
"These are the values that make our country what it is. These are our values. There is no place for extremism here."
Mr Cameron said the package could involve a broadcasting ban on extremist preachers, similar to that imposed on Mr Adams.
He said: "What we are proposing here is to look at groups who currently are just the right side of not endorsing actual violence but they are preaching extremism."
"There's a very strong argument to say that these extremists are poisoning the minds of young people who are then going on to become violent, and we shouldn't give airtime, we shouldn't give freedom, to these sorts of groups."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article