The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has admitted that stand-up comedians who push the boundaries could find themselves being questioned by officers this summer, taking them away from pursuing actual criminals (Mail, Scottish Daily Express, Telegraph).
The SPF said there was a risk that performers at the Fringe festival could be reported for flouting the Scottish Government’s new hate crime law, and then questioned by Police Scotland officers. It’s a claim that rings true, not least because the Force has previously made clear that, as a bare minimum, it will automatically record every ‘hate crime’ report it receives, however trivial or vexatious, as a ‘non crime hate incident’ (as they’ve done in the case of Murdo Fraser MSP, who was recorded as having committed a ‘non crime’ for challenging the SNP Government’s ‘Non-Binary Equality Action Plan’ on X).
SPF general secretary David Kennedy said: “This is going to be a busier Fringe than normal for the police. Stand-up comedians by their nature take risks in what they say – think of someone like Frankie Boyle. I would hope it wouldn’t get to the stage where police are questioning comedians after complaints about breaches of the hate crime law – but that is a possibility.”
The warning comes after the National Theatre of Scotland revealed it was planning talks with the Scottish Government over the implications of the new law for artistic freedom. There is nothing in the new hate crime law to protect performers from prosecution.
More specifically, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act broadens the offence of ‘stirring up racial hatred’ and extends it to the protected characteristics of disability, religion, sexual orientation, age, transgender identity and ‘variations in sex characteristics’.
Putting aside race (which is handled slightly differently to the other protected characteristics) committing the ‘stirring up’ offence requires:
1) Behaviour or communication to another person of material that a “reasonable person” would consider threatening or abusive; and
2) Intention to stir up hatred against a group of persons defined by a protected characteristic.
As per the legislation’s protections for freedom of expression, it will not be deemed “abusive and threatening” to engage “solely” in “discussion or criticism” about age or any of the other protected characteristics.
Scots are also expressly permitted to voice “antipathy, dislike, ridicule or insult” for religion.
However, that carve-out does not apply to the legislation’s other protected characteristics, raising serious free speech concerns not just for performers, but for anyone who likes to frequent the public square.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe will run from August 2nd-26th.
Back in 2022, comedian Jerry Sadowitz was scheduled to play two nights at Edinburgh comedy venue The Pleasance during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but following a typically Sadowitzian opening night, the venue cancelled the second performance at short notice. The Pleasance then moved quickly to denounce Mr Sadowitz’s first gig, loftily declaring that it “[did] not align with our values”, “ha[d] no place on the Festival” and that it had been so offensive as to make people feel “unsafe”. (This, by the way, after insisting – “apparently with a straight face” as Michael Deacon put it for the Telegraph – that the Pleasance “is a venue that champions freedom of speech”).
Last year, Graham Linehan, the Father Ted Creator, had his stand-up show at The Leith Arches axed because of his outspoken stance on gender ideology. In a craven statement, the venue claimed some of its customers had been “rightly outraged” that it was to provide a platform to the writer, and that his presence would “violate our space”.
