The front cover of Tuesday’s Herald—Scotland’s and the world’s oldest national newspaper—sent a stark warning to performers across the country: that police have been “told to target comics” under a new ‘hate crime’ law.
Police training seen by the paper informed officers that material which can be deemed as “threatening and abusive” under the Hate Crime and Public Order Act can be communicated “through public performance of a play.”
Pro-UK Scottish writer Effie Deans told The European Conservative that despite claims the training is at odds with the controversial legislation, “the danger is that writers will censor themselves” and “comedians [will] avoid jokes that might offend.”
We might even have to be careful in our own homes in case we later fall out with a friend who reports our conversation to the police.
When the legislation was being drawn up four years ago, an impressive collection of authors, comedians and activists—including Rowan Atkinson, famous for his Mr. Bean character, and best-selling crime writer and friend of former Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon Val McDermid—warned that it could result in the “stifling [of] free expression.”
Their concerns clearly did not hold enough sway. While the legislation has undergone a number of changes in blatant attempts to distract free speech activists, many fear that the Act will still hold the power to deal a great blow to free speech in Scotland when it comes into force on April 1st. So much so that one “concerned Scot” has described it in The Daily Sceptic blog as the death of “The Scottish Enlightenment.”
Deans told The European Conservative that one of the problems with the hate crime law, which makes it an offence to ‘stir up hatred’ against certain protected characteristics—including disability, sexual orientation, and transgender identity—“is that ordinary people have no real idea of what sort of things will be prosecuted.” Many, then, are bound to fall foul of the law—not least because Police Scotland has insisted it will investigate every ‘hate crime’ complaint under the Act.
Commenting on the specific threat to comedians under the new legislation, writer and comedian Andrew Doyle attacked SNP leader Humza Yousaf—“the high priest of this dominant cult, sacrificing the freedom of his citizens to appease his intersectional deities”—for having “tornadoed onwards with his blasphemy codes.” Doyle added that “the best response to the Scottish National Party’s new hate crime bill is surely to mock it.”