By Ben Borland – Scottish Daily Express
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill has been lurking in the shadows for three years but it is now going to come into effect from April 1, meaning that ‘misogyny’ and ‘stirring up hatred’ will be recorded as a criminal offence
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell’s famous opening to 1984 couldn’t be more appropriate as Scotland prepares to enter a dystopian universe where Big Brother is always watching and hate crime is simply saying something that another person doesn’t like.
The Scottish Government confirmed today that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act will take effect on April 1, bringing with it some of the most draconian curbs on freedom of speech and expression in any free democracy on earth. It has taken 40 years longer than Orwell predicted… but we have finally arrived in the totalitarian nightmare that he feared.
Incredibly, the first test case of these new SNP restrictions may well come via the billionaire author JK Rowling, whose Harry Potter books have brought light and happiness into the lives of countless children. She was recently reported to the police in England for describing the trans woman broadcaster India Willoughby as a ‘man’.
Northumbria Police were reassuringly quick to tell Willoughby that no crime had been committed but it remains to be seen what will happen in Scotland if a similar remark were to be reported after April 1. Rowling, whose Ministry of Magic was another literary example of how easily state powers could be subverted, could find herself in a plot too far-fetched even for her own fertile imagination.
In another horrendous irony, the police will begin enforcing this new and dangerous legislation – which will also make misogyny a hate crime – at around the same time as a cost-cutting new policy is rolled out nationwide which will mean that around one in 20 actual crimes are no longer investigated.
If somebody breaks into your garden shed and steals your bike, for example, or if your car is vandalised, then no action will be taken unless there is a witness or other evidence such as CCTV footage. However, if you were to say that you wouldn’t want an adult transgender female with male genitalia to share a changing room at the swimming pool with your daughter, then you may risk prosecution.
The Hate Crime Act was pushed through the Scottish Parliament by the current First Minister Humza Yousaf during his stint as Justice Secretary, although much like almost everything else he has ever been involved with (barring his deeply held convictions over Israel and Gaza) it wasn’t actually his idea.
Indeed, it was the brainchild of his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, who hoped to leave as a “legacy” the Gender Recognition Reform Act that would allow people in Scotland to legally change their gender after just three months and without any medical grounds for doing so.
Thankfully, this madness was torpedoed by the Isla Bryson/Adam Graham scandal when a convicted double rapist was sent to a female prison and blocked by the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, with his actions later fully upheld by the courts. Unfortunately, the Hate Crime Act was passed as long ago as March 2021 and there is now nothing to stop this legislation from taking effect on April 1 and crushing our cherished freedoms like an out-of-control steamroller.
Unlike in England and Wales, there is no provision for Police Scotland to ignore “trivial, malicious or irrational” complaints and all reports of hate crime MUST be recorded, no matter how nonsensical they are. This could – in theory – even see the new book in which the Loch Ness monster depicted as a male (traditionally, Nessie is regarded as a she-monster) recorded on police systems for ‘misgendering’.
Before the Bill came into force in March 2021, the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee took steps to allay fears over freedom of expression with the former convener Adam Tomkins – who is much missed as a Conservative MSP after stepping down later that year – said: “In particular, it must be widely understood that, just because one is offended, hurt or upset by something that someone has said about an aspect of one’s identity, that does not mean that a hate crime has been committed.”
It remains to be seen whether Mr Tomkins and his colleagues did enough to insert safeguards into the Bill that was so recklessly passed by SNP and Green MSPs… or whether we are to start a new chapter of life in the SNP’s Orwellian Scotland.