End hate by uniting folk.. not dividing

TARGETING anyone for who they are – whether it is because of gender, sex, race, religion or disability is wrong.

Most reasonable people would agree. But the Scottish Government, thanks to a poorly drafted law which even Ministers have not been clear on, left the public confused as to whether an opinion could be classed as a hate crime just because it causes offence.

In six days there have been more than 8000 complaints to Police Scotland, with people seemingly desperate to report all the hatred going on.

That figure is expected to hit 10,000 by tomorrow.

Some cases will be genuine, but they risk being drowned out by the vexatious or politically motivated complaints bombarding our already under-pressure police force.

The new Hate Crime Act is a mess and it looks like no one knows how to clean it up.

Scotland’s former first minister Jack McConnell, who knows a little about when legislation is needed and when more crucially it’s not, called the law unworkable.

He has written today about his approach as first minister to bridging the divide between Catholic and Protestant communities in the 2000s.

Despite being urged to legislate, McConnell took a braver and more difficult path – he brought key people on both sides together and asked them for help.

This made sure those affected by the problem – in this case sectarianism – played a key part in its solution.

He rightly figured out that passing laws to ban people’s freedom of expression and what they may have viewed as an attack on their very being was not the right way to go.

McConnell said: “Good political leadership should try to win the argument, build a consensus, not sow division.

“The early years of the Scottish Parliament showed how to use the powers of home rule to legislate well and lead change in Scotland, but this Hate Crime Act looks like the opposite.”

The SNP government would do well to learn from his words.

Passing a law that doesn’t include all marginalised groups and leaves people feeling that their opinions are now being sanctioned is nothing short of Orwellian.

There are times more legislation is not the right way forward, and this is a prime example.