Scotland’s Hate Crime Bill is a charter for the suppression of free speech

Aug 12, 2020 by Jill

by David Robertson, theweeflea:

There are laws on the statute books which are largely redundant because they have not been used or implemented. The Scottish blasphemy law is one such. The last time it was used was 178 years ago, when Edinburgh bookseller, Thomas Paterson, was prosecuted for advertising: ‘that the Bible and other obscene works not sold at this shop.’

In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the Scottish Government has delayed its proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act, but has still found time to seek to repeal the blasphemy law. But the proposed Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) bill is in effect going to create a new secular blasphemy law – one which will be far more encompassing than its predecessor, and one that will have the crucial difference of actually being used.

Age and sex are to be added to the protected characteristics of disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. The intention seems to be good. But the Bill is drafted in such a way that it is a charter for the suppression of free speech. It talks about the offence of ‘stirring up hatred’, criminalising anyone who ‘behaves in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner’ or ‘communicates threatening, abusive or insulting material to another person’.

Even more extreme, the question of ‘intent’ can be bypassed. If behaviour or material is ‘likely’ to stir up hatred against any protected groups, then whether the accused intended to do so is considered not relevant. Humza Yousaf, the Scottish Government Justice Secretary, may intend his law to be good, but as his own law states, intention can be bypassed – because the effects of the law will make Scotland into the most authoritarian and anti-free speech state in the Western world.

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