SNP’s Hate Crime law is no laughing matter
The SNP’s Hate Crime Act comes into force on April Fools’ Day. The jokes write themselves.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw Police Scotland’s ‘Hate Monster’ which resembles a pound-shop Sesame Street character.
Even one SNP MSP said the police campaign’s stereotyping of workingclass white males were offensive.
It’s been tempting to poke fun at this disastrous law.
But while we could all have a chuckle at yet another SNP policy farce, once again the joke is on the people of Scotland.
Humza Yousaf ’s hate crime law is serious. It’s a threat to free speech. It potentially criminalises what people say in their own home. Little wonder some are calling is a clypes’ charter.
Police officers say they are unprepared for its implementation and fear a public backlash because of this bad SNP law.
Free speech is a right that’s easy to take for granted but we would all notice the minute it was taken away – and in Scotland, with this new act, our rights are being eroded.
Before this law even came into force, police have been keeping records of so-called ‘hate incidents’ even when there is no evidence of criminality.
My Scottish Conservative colleague Murdo Fraser discovered by chance that Police Scotland had retained a complaint against him as a “noncrime hate incident”.
His alleged offence? A social media post poking fun at contentious SNP government gender policies.
He had not been informed that the complaint against him had been made or was recorded. It took the police three months to admit it.
That is the dark road that this Hate Crime Act could take us down. One where people might think twice about speaking up against the government.
Intolerant and noisy activists are certain to weaponise the law to criminalise and silence those they disagree with.
No matter how the legislation is interpreted by prosecutors and the courts, it is expected to have a chilling effect on what people say.
Women’s rights groups who state the truth about biological sex fear they will be targeted.
Yousaf promised he would engage with them when he passed the law three years ago – then broken his promise.
The SNP often act in an arrogant and oppressive way.
They’ve shown it in their back catalogue of bad law and culture of secrecy.
There’s the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act and the Named Persons Act.
During the Covid inquiry and the Salmond inquiry, they deliberately hid and even destroyed evidence.
And in their daily running of government, they are routinely secretive and evasive – while ludicrously claiming to be transparent.
In any democracy where freedom of expression is not just fundamental but a universal right, shutting down criticism of the government is worrying and wrong.
The Scottish Conservatives were the only party to oppose the Hate Crime Act when it was passed by the Edinburgh parliament.
Yousaf should repeal this dangerous legislation – and Police Scotland’s Hate Monster should be sent back to the toy box.