Russell Findlay has been a member of the Scottish Parliament for the West of Scotland region since 2021, and is the Scottish Conservative Justice Spokesman
Have you met the Hate Monster? A cartoon character created by Police Scotland to campaign against hate crime which, according to Humza Yousaf’s SNP, has become an ugly epidemic.
The scowling creature grows bigger by feasting on hate, potential offenders are patronisingly told. A masterclass in cringe, the video ends with the order #DontFeedHate.
I suspect that citizens who have suffered from violence, theft, or other crimes would expect to see a police officer rather than get lectured on being nice from something resembling a pound shop Sesame Street character.
But with officer numbers in Scotland at their lowest in 16 years, scores of stations shut down, and the new policy of not every crime being investigated, the angry red monster is perhaps the best they can hope for.
In the face of some stiff competition, the risible Hate Monster is the break-out star of the SNP’s Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.
That said, Siobhian Brown, SNP minister, has also entertained with her edgy strategy of attempting to defend the new law on radio and TV while appearing to know little about it.
Sharp-eyed readers will note that this legislation was passed by Holyrood three years ago and may wonder why it’s only now (from April Fools’ Day) being imposed on the people of Scotland.
That’s because Police Scotland has been frozen in limbo, unsure about how they were supposed to train officers to handle what David Kennedy, the Scottish Police Federation’s general secretary, describes as “extremely complex” legislation.
It creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or being intersex (adding to pre-existing protections for race, colour, nationality, and ethnicity).
Those deemed to have been “threatening or abusive”, as viewed by a “reasonable person”, will have committed an offence which can result in a seven-year jail sentence.
On the face of it, who could possibly disagree with tackling crimes motivated or aggravated by hatred?
But as a reverse Marks and Spencer advert might say: ‘This is not just law … this is SNP law.’ More ominously still, it is Humza Yousaf law, crafted by a career politician synonymous with shallowness and failure.
From the outset, women’s rights campaigners sought to include sex to the bill’s long list of new protected characteristics but were denied. The law gives greater protection to men who dress up as women than to actual women.
In many ways, the hate crime debacle was a dress rehearsal for Nicola Sturgeon’s ill-fated gender self-ID legislation, which shared a similar disregard for conventional beliefs about biological sex and the protection of women’s rights.
JK Rowling was at the forefront of both battles and this week scored a victory for all by forcing Police Scotland to promptly state that her deliberately provocative tweets about men who identify as transgender women do not breach the new law. However, women without the Harry Potter author’s status and wealth still fear expressing gender critical views.
Much of what happens next will hinge on interpretation and implementation by the police, and more importantly, Scotland’s opaque Crown Office prosecution service.
It’s too early to say whether telling simple truths about sex and gender will meet the prosecution threshold of “abusive” as is ordained by intolerant transgender lobbyists who have the ear of Yousaf’s SNP.
On the cusp of the law’s passing, misgivings were expressed by a broad spectrum of faith groups, academics, lawyers, writers, and journalists.
Roddy Dunlop KC, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, the trade body for Scotland’s top lawyers, warned presciently about “weaponisation” of the law.
Just as prescient was Scott Wortley, an Edinburgh University law lecturer, who said: “Criminalisation of hate speech leaves it open for pressure to be put on people through vexatious complaints which take time and energy to defend.”
Even if the Crown is unlikely to embark on mass prosecutions, there’s little doubt about the law’s chilling effect on free speech. It’s already being weaponised by thin-skinned activists with almost 4,000 complaints submitted to police in the first 24 hours.
Murdo Fraser, my Scottish Conservative colleague, found that he had been subject of a complaint over a light-hearted social media quip about the SNP government’s non-binary policy.
Despite this being not criminal, he also discovered, and only by chance, that the police had kept a record of this “non-crime hate incident”. This happened before the new law came into effect.
In contrast, Police Scotland says that Rowling’s tweets will not be recorded in this way – which is entirely correct but inexplicably inconsistent.
But what will happen to ordinary folk? To have a secret police file containing a ‘hate incident’ marker could be hugely detrimental, not least to career opportunities. A prime example of “process is punishment”.
Another major issue is that Yousaf’s hate crime law does not contain any defence for private conversations in people’s own homes.
So, an anonymous accusation that you had stirred up hate at the dinner table could result in a knock at the door from the police seeking statements from those present.
I became an MSP two months after the law was passed but my Scottish Conservative colleagues fought valiantly to amend some of its worst excesses.
On the day of the vote, Liam Kerr urged his fellow MSPs to “put free speech first when making the decisive vote on this ill-conceived legislation”.
When it came to the crunch, with a few notable exceptions, our party stood alone in voting against this deeply flawed and downright illiberal legislation.
Basking in the bill’s passing, delusional Yousaf described it as “truly transformative” and showed how “parliament can work at its best”.
The Scottish Conservatives remain the clear and consistent voice of reason. We are campaigning to repeal the legislation.
As often happens at Holyrood, opposition MSPs happily nod along with the nationalists.
There is little difference between the SNP and Anas Sarwar’s Labour: piously left-wing, high-tax, anti-capitalist, socially ‘progressive’, state-knows-best. As someone quipped recently – Scottish Labour are just the SNP without the flags.
Yousaf’s “truly transformative” hate crime law is causing widespread concern and conflict across Scotland and monumental mockery around the world. It’s certainly going to be a busy shift for the Hate Monster.
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Author: Russell Findlay MSP
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