Can hate law be rendered unworkable?

THErE are only two ways a citizen can respond to Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act, the most pernicious piece of legislation produced by any government within the territory of the Uk in modern times: zip the mind, zip the lips, as acts of self-censorship, or continue to speak out on any subject we wish.

In our society the combination of freedom of thought and speech has been the rock on which democracy rests. Self-censorship, based on fear of the government and its police, will corrode and ultimately destroy what makes life here so different from regimes for whom free speech is toxic, and something they must crush. we cannot allow Scotland to take that dark road. The Act must be resisted. I intend to resist, by not changing in any way my practice of saying what I think and writing what I think. If all of us do the same, if we point-blank refuse to be intimidated by a police service that is translating itself into a police force for one particular purpose, and stand by those it seeks to punish by joining them in repeating the alleged offence, we can render this Hate Crime Act unworkable.

This Act is an absurdity. If it nets a major writer with a worldwide reputation, as some believe it will, Scotland will be rendered a laughing stock. It is our democratic duty to beat it and the key to doing that is not to be afraid. For my part, on April 1, I intend to re-publish a speech I made in Dundee on March 12, 2023, in which I explained that women have XX chromosomes and men XY ones, and that no legislation can make the XX become XY.

Jim sillArs, edinburgh. IF I were to email declaring that I hate the SNP/Greens and all their divisive policies, and I sent it on April 2 from England, would I be breaking the hate crime law? If so, a section 35 is required! They cannot take our free speech! Gordon mACCAlmAn, motherwell, lanarkshire. THE SnP’s Hate Crime Act indicates the limited intellectual capabilities of those who would try to make these legislative monstrosities the law of the land. It has made Scotland a laughing stock.