Pub landlord comedian Al Murray says Scotland’s new hate crime law has put comedians at high risk of being arrested for gags that are just meant as tongue-in-cheek humour.
Stand-up Murray is best known for playing his character The Pub Landlord, an opinionated English publican with an animosity towards the Germans and French, who always thinks the British are best at everything.
Murray, who has been outspoken about the controversial legislation in the past, has often assumed the beer-swilling character on TV shows including the series Time Gentlemen Please and Fact Hunt.
As reported by the Mail, the 55-year-old said while he’s been able to say bigoted things in a humorous way as part of his fictional character’s outrageous views, it could now be interpreted in Scotland as criminal hate.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which was activated on April 1st, broadens the offence of ‘stirring up racial hatred’, extending it to the protected characteristics of disability, religion, sexual orientation, age, transgender identity and ‘variations in sex characteristics’.
The Bill won the backing of a majority of MSPs in March 2021, despite concerns that the entire section on stirring up hatred (section three) was “fundamentally flawed” and represented an “attack” on freedom of speech.
Activation of the legislation was then delayed while Police Scotland began the process of “training, guidance and communications planning”.
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 least for stand-up comics and performers like Al Murray.
As Murray himself points out, all comedians are in danger of being arrested for saying things they don’t believe in real life following the introduction of the Hate Crime and Public Order Act earlier this month.
During an appearance on Radio 4’s Loose Ends last week, Murray was asked by host Clive Anderson if in Scotland he could now be found guilty of stirring up hatred for criticising Scots in his comic persona.
“Well, yes,” he replied. “This is a very interesting moment actually, that piece of legislation.
“To be honest, I think for comedians it’s a wonderful opportunity to get yourself arrested and get written about,” he said sarcastically. “Or maybe next time I go to Scotland I should simply turn myself in.
“One of the fun things about it is that you can occupy a character space that isn’t you,” he added. “The Pub Landlord is extremely rude I think, and very often when I watch it back I’m completely boggled by the things I say. He’s very front foot, put it that way. He thinks if you love someone you let them go, don’t you – ‘we love the Scots, so off you hop, jog on lads’.”
Englishman Murray previously joked that he might end up in jail when he attended the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, after getting criticism from ‘diehard’ Scottish nationalists about some of his jokes.
“I’m going to have to take myself into the [police] and say I’m afraid I did a joke last night which, on reflection, you might have to take me away for a night in the cells.”
“With a piece of legislation like that, you’re so vulnerable to attention-seeking d***heads,” he told The Scottish Sun, deploying a phrase which in Scotland must surely now teeter on the brink of being a ‘hate crime’ against people with ‘variations in sex characteristics’.
As reported in the Times, almost 1,000 new Scottish members have joined the FSU in the past fortnight, most of them women, and all concerned at the threat to free speech posed by the country’s draconian new law.
In response we’ve set up a Hate Speech Hotline in case any of them get into trouble with the police about something they’ve said. We’ve also put an arrangement in place with Levy & McRea, a top firm of criminal lawyers in Scotland, so if any of our members are arrested or interviewed under caution for something speech-related we can come to their aid.
Speaking to the Times about the work we’re doing to support our members, FSU General Secretary Toby Young said: “We felt we needed to put a hotline in place in case any of them get into trouble with the police about something they’ve said. If they’re arrested or interviewed under caution for something speech-related, we will do our best to get them a lawyer.”
The FSU is already supporting the Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, who is considering a legal challenge against Police Scotland, which he claims has breached human rights laws, data protection laws and equality laws over its recording of a complaint against him as a hate incident. (You can find out more about Mr Fraser’s case here).
Neil Hay, of Levy & Macrae, said: “We are delighted to be appointed by the FSU to represent the interests of their members in this new and novel area of the law.”
If you’re an existing FSU member, you can find the Hotline number, as well as detailed instructions about what to do if you’re arrested in Scotland for a speech-related offence in the following set of FAQs
The Hotline number is also available to members in this separate set of FAQs, which answers questions about the new criminal offences created by the Hate Crime Act.
