Scotland’s Hate and Public Order (Scotland) Act has been billed by the country’s SNP-led government as a necessary legislative update to a hotch-potch of anti-hate laws (it finally abolishes the offence of blasphemy, last prosecuted in 1843), which extends the offence of stirring up hatred to cover not only race and religion but also age, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity and “variations in sex characteristics”.
According to its critics – the FSU included – it represents a state-sponsored assault on free speech with sinister parallels to the Stasi in East Germany. Politicians have also long warned that the new law will be “weaponised” by the radical trans lobby to criminalise anyone who states their belief in the immutability of someone’s birth sex.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph has been told that Police Scotland – which has just announced it will no longer investigate certain low-level crimes – is diverting resources so it can investigate the expected influx of accusatory phone calls it will receive from those offended by other people’s opinions. The report continues:
The force has promised to investigate every hate crime complaint it receives, and if the complainant (or victim, as they are officially referred to) insists they were upset by something they perceived to be a hate crime, it will be logged as a non-crime hate incident (NCHI) even if there is not a shred of evidence of any crime being committed.
Little wonder that women’s rights campaigners fear that the new law will be used by trans radicals to settle scores and silence anyone who dares to challenge their world view.
If George Orwell was still around, he could perhaps write a book about it and call it Twenty Twenty-Four.
There is no Big Brother in this story, though: only members of the public who are being encouraged to call the police if they are upset that someone doesn’t agree with them. Or, if they want to make an anonymous complaint, they can do so through a network of “Hate Crime Third Party Reporting Centres”, which include university campuses, a sex shop in Glasgow and a salmon factory in Berwickshire (a mushroom farm in North Berwick was removed from the list after a certain amount of ridicule in the media).
Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, who has championed the new law after introducing it when he was Justice Secretary, has insisted that the bar for criminality will be set so high that no-one who is simply expressing an opinion will be convicted of a crime.
Critics of the new law say that is beside the point. The legislation gives police the powers to seize personal property such as computers and mobile phones to search for evidence of criminality when a complaint of hate crime is made, and to hold onto them until a decision is made on whether to prosecute or not, which could take many months. They might also require people accused of hate crimes to attend police stations to be interviewed or to give statements, or even turn up at their house. As the old saying goes, the process is the punishment.
Tony Lenehan KC, the president of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association, a representative body for barristers in Scotland, says merely being accused of a hate crime could be “life changing” for people who have done nothing wrong.
He says: “This could change your whole perception of how you fit into society if you see yourself as someone who is considered a potential criminal. I have colleagues who have gone through a complaints process because they have addressed a jury as ‘ladies and gentlemen’ and someone has found that offensive. This is going to be a thousand times worse.
“Imagine the horror of being brought into a police station and questioned. I haven’t met anyone in the criminal justice system who applauds this law.”
Lenehan is among those who argue that the new law is totally unnecessary, because existing laws already provide ample protection against genuine hate crimes.
Worth reading in full.
If you’re resident in Scotland and worried about having a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) recorded against you following the activation of the Scottish Hate Crime Act on April 1st, join the FSU today – we’ll do everything we can to get it scrubbed from the record.
Please do also consider donating to our newly established Scottish Fighting Fund.
The FSU is currently helping Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser to get Police Scotland to remove a NCHI recorded against him for a tweet that criticised the SNP Government’s ‘Non-Binary Equality Action Plan’ and to change the national guidance it is following whereby every report of a ‘hate crime’, no matter how trivial or vexatious, is automatically recorded as an NCHI.
If Police Scotland refuse to comply with Mr Fraser’s request, we will help him take them to court to force them to revise the current guidance, which we believe is unlawful.
Any money generated by this fundraiser between now and 31st March 2025 that we don’t spend on Murdo Fraser’s case will be spent on fighting cases related specifically to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.
To that end, we have an arrangement in place with a top firm of criminal lawyers in Scotland so we can assign a solicitor to FSU members who are arrested or questioned under caution because they’re suspected of committing a speech-related ‘hate crime’ (as defined in the new law). Full details at the link above.
Any money left over in the fundraiser after 12 months will be transferred to our general funds.
