Here’s a clue for politicians: when you’re asked if you’ve just criminalised the national anthem and all you can do is say “Er, maybe, it all kinda depends on the circumstances” the chances are you’ve produced a bill that tests even the patient, hard-to-exhaust, limits of parliamentary absurdity and you should probably put it through the shredder and start again. If, that is, you should even be legislating in these matters at all.
We do things differently in Scotia New and Braw, don’t you know? So today the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee took evidence on the government’s planned and loopy and shameful and illiberal Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (the text of which may be contemplated here) and, yup, Roseanna Cunningham (the poor fish lumbered with this disaster) was left to look a prize fool:
When asked by John Lamont, the Tory justice spokesman, if singing God Save the Queen could lead to a jail term, she replied: “The glib answer would be ‘no’ but it depends on the circumstances.”
Cunningham, a practising Catholic, said: “I have seen hundreds of Celtic fans making the sign of the cross in what can only be described as an aggressive manner at Rangers fans.
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