The SNP’s radical assault on freedom of speech

When Humza Yousaf first proposed his Hate Crime Bill, I compared it to the late, unlamented Offensive Behaviour Act. Similarly rushed through Holyrood by the SNP, it sought to rid Scottish football of sectarian behaviour by, among other things, criminalising the singing of certain songs at matches. The Act didn’t specify which songs and so it was left to the discretion of a police officer overhearing a chant to decide whether or not it would be offensive to a reasonable person. Astonishingly enough, this didn’t work out and such was the fan and legal profession backlash that the Act was eventually repealed — in the teeth of SNP opposition.

The Hate Crime Bill was, in part, their revenge and it was of a nuclear variety. Don’t like us arbitrarily policing speech at football matches? Fine, we’ll classify the whole country as a football match. The Bill, which passed what passes for a parliament on Thursday, is weaker than the one introduced but it is no less sinister.