Yes, now Scotland has gone insane woke with over-the-top new hate laws, which are now moving to deal with hate in the private sphere, where in most countries the oppression is only in public.
“A Pakistani who currently works as the “Cabinet Secretary for Justice” in Scotland has announced plans to criminalize speech inside the home that he personally feels might lead to a “hate crime.”
Humza Yousaf, who is not even Scottish, is credited with creating and implementing the so-called “Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill,” which aims to protect “minorities” from mean talk that might take place around people’s dinner tables.
While the Public Order Act of 1986 has long prohibited threatening, abusive or insulting words and behavior, that law contains a “swelling defence” provision that allows people to say what they wish inside their own homes – something that Yousaf’s new legislation abolishes.
Under Yousaf’s new restrictions, Scots, including those who work as journalists and even theater directors, could be forced to face the courts if they say something not nice about Muslims, for instance …
According to Yousaf, Scots have no right to engage in “hateful speech,” even on their own property. Yousaf’s proposal was given the nod by Lord Bracadale to proceed with it, despite opposition from the Scottish Catholic Church, police representatives, academics, artists and others.
“It will introduce an offence of stirring-up hatred against people with protected characteristics, including disability, sexual orientation and age,” writes Mark McLaughlin for The Times (U.K.).
In other words, if you are someone who does not have a “protected characteristic,” then you will not be protected from “hate speech” under Yousaf’s law.
While Lord Bracadale is responsible for having made the recommendations that led to the bill’s creation, he did reportedly advise the Scottish Cabinet to think long and hard about how the public order will impact what used to be people’s private lives.
The committee’s convenor asked Lord Bracadale if from his “experience of the operation of criminal law” that the Parliament should “be alert to some danger in that,” to which Lord Bracadale responded in the affirmative.
“I think that your concern is well-founded,” he stated.
In other words, Scotland will now have a snitch culture in which angry “minorities” and their allies can target those they do not like with this weaponized legislation, which again was crafted by someone who is not even Scottish, but who somehow attained a high-level seat in Scotland’s government.
The Scottish government did agree to change one key piece of wording that, if left as Yousaf wrote it, would have made this “hate crime” bill even more of a threat than it already is.
Instead of reading “likely to stir up hatred,” the new version of the bill specifies that only language “intended to stir up hatred” can be prosecuted, which is much harder to prove than the former.
The Christian Institute, reporting on the bill, expressed thankfulness to the Justice Secretary for his willingness to compromise on what it describes as “one of the most controversial parts of the [b]ill.” At the same time, the group says that “many more changes are still required.”
Goodbye Scotland, it was nice knowing you.