Politicians scramble to distance themselves from Hate Speech Bill
IF gardai are not nervously eyeing Scotland’s new hate crime laws after police there received 3,800 complaints in 24 hours they should be.
When this country has so many who go out of their way to be offended there’s every reason to believe there will be a similar stampede if the Hate Speech Bill passes in Ireland.
Many here and in Scotland believe such laws are designed to stifle free speech rather than defend minorities.
The recent referendum results were a clear indication of just how out of step the current government is.
Sinn Fein, the independents and even a good many Government TDS have belatedly realised their policies reflect their own, not the public’s best interests.
There can be little doubt that if a referendum was held asking if the Hate Speech Bill should become law it would be overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
For when the terms hate and hatred are not even defined in the proposed legislation, who could blame the public for rejecting fuzzy terminology as they did with the equally ludicrous “durable relationships”.
Not only do the public believe the new laws ares unnecessary, they are convinced they would be unworkable. They also suspect hate speech laws would be used as a means to control criticism of thorny issues such as the Government’s controversial emigration policies and the promotion of gender ideology.
Put simply, the public did not trust the Government in the run up to the referenda. They also do not trust assurances given by ministers that the hate speech laws will not be used to control or even suppress debate about controversial issues.
Sinn Fein, whose TDS all voted for the Hate Speech Bill when it came before the Dail, has now apparently seen the error of its ways and is calling for it to be scrapped.
So too is former Fine Gael justice minister Charlie Flanagan who wants the legislation “brought back to the drawing board”.
He is advising Simon Harris to concentrate on priorities such as housing, health and law and order. After spending 13 years in power overseeing a spiralling crisis in health and housing it may be little too late for that.
No doubt Mr Flanagan and many others were taken aback with the sheer size of the No vote in the referenda.
They are now rejecting a Bill they enthusiastically voted for with some at the time calling for even harsher measures to be added to what is generally accepted as very restrictive legislation.
Sinn Fein find themselves in a particularly difficult situation having backed the referenda and the Hate Speech Bill.
With the local and Euro elections looming in June there is a mad scramble on the part of most government and opposition politicians to distance themselves from harsh new laws they recently supported.
It is a measure of the estrangement of the political class in this country that it took a humiliating referendum defeat for them to realise that the NGOS and lobby groups which have been the driving forces behind this repressive legislation represent no one but themselves.
Deputy Flanagan is open enough to admit that the hate speech legislation is “proving very controversial” and that one of the reasons for this is an “absence of definitions”.
He’s right of course as the police in Scotland have been finding out as Harry Potter author JK Rowling openly challenged the new laws.
Daring the police to arrest her she declared men who claim to be women “aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them”.
On the face of it this is in clear breach of the new laws but Scottish police have declined to act. They most likely have more pressing matters to attend to.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has supported the author saying people shouldn’t be criminalised for “stating simple facts on biology”.
It will be interesting to see how incoming Taoiseach Simon Harris would react if the Hate Speech Bill becomes law, especially when most government politicians refuse to even define a woman for fear of offending lobby groups.
That might change after the June elections when the Government will again find that being woke has become something of a political yoke.
The public believe the new laws are unnecessary & unworkable