Holyrood rejects call to repeal Hate Crime Act as SNP block bid to protect sex
HOLYROOD has rejected a Conservative party motion demanding Scotland’s controversial new hate crime law to be repealed.
SNP and Green MSPS also blocked a Labour call for sex to be added as an aggravator and protected characteristic under the Act.
The legislation came into effect on April 1, sparking an initial deluge of reports. In that first week, the force received 7,152 complaints. However, there was a “significant reduction” in the second, with 1,832 reports received between April 8 and April 14, down 75%.
Of those, 213 hate crimes were recorded, down from 240.
The debate was at times bad-tempered and personal.
SNP MSP Christine Grahame described the Tory frontbencher Russell Findlay as “self-indulgent, flamboyant and frequently reckless” with “an insatiable appetite for the next tabloid banner headline”.
“That may offend Mr Findlay, but I trust he will appreciate that is an example of my right to expression of free speech, which I know he’ll defend to the hilt,” he added.
The Tory Shadow Justice Secretary later said he “wholeheartedly” supported the MSP’S “flamboyant attack” on him.
Elsewhere, the SNP’S depute leader Keith Brown called for calm. He told MSPS he had received six death threats. He said his office manager was in court on Tuesday “trying to take forward a case against somebody who wanted to kill me”.
“The abuse is constant. We all know it’s happening. But let’s accept some responsibility when we feed the atmosphere, because it has realterm consequences.”
Opening the debate, Mr Findlay said the legislation had “transformed Scotland into a place of international mockery” and “transformed the birthplace of the Enlightenment into a place where free speech has been debased and devalued.”
He added: “A place of sinister police billboards instructing people to snitch on those who hurt their feelings, where contentious discussions and disagreements in your own home can result in a knock at the door from the police.
“Every single complaint, no matter how groundless or absurd, is subject to police investigation, while disappearing officers are being told not to pursue real crimes. Welcome to Scotland, home of Humza Yousaf’s hate crime law, aka the clype’s charter.”
He said that while prosecutions may be unlikely, an investigation would be “daunting, disruptive, humiliating and financially costly” for those reported.
“Police arriving at your home or workplace taken away in handcuffs, phone seized, forced to pay for a lawyer, stigmatising and damaging to personal reputations and employment prospects.”
Siobhian Brown, the Minister for Victims and Community said the Scottish Government had no intention of scrapping the legislation.
Labour’s justice spokeswoman, Pauline Mcneill, said sex had not been included as a protected characteristic because the Scottish Government had promised to bring forward a standalone Bill on misogyny.
She said: “Three years on, there is still no sign of the legislation.”