News Round-Up
26 July 2024
Government Has Just Declared War on Free Speech
26 July 2024
by Toby Young
A month after the arrival of Scotland's Hate Crime Act and it appears reports of the demise of the Scottish Enlightenment may have been premature, no thanks to the SNP but due to the doughty spirit of the Scots.
Police Scotland staff have been given a script defending Humza Yousaf after he faced a deluge of hate crime reports.
Police Scotland "can’t cope" with the deluge of hate crime reports made under the SNP's new law, while officers are confused about who should be charged because of inadequate training, frontline officers have warned.
We look over the border to Scotland with a sense of alarm and disgust at the extreme censorship now being imposed via the Hate Crime Act. But speech is already scarcely freer in England, says Ella Whelan.
Humza Yousaf has received more complaints under Scotland's new hate crime bill for his 2020 speech about "often being the only non-white person in the room" than J.K. Rowling, it was claimed today.
JK Rowling has vented her anger online over Scotland's new hate crime law, warning it will muzzle free speech and criminalise something as simple as using the wrong pronouns.
The Free Speech Union is mobilising legal support in Scotland ahead of the implementation of new controversial hate crime laws, amid concerns over the suppression of free expression and vexatious complaints.
We tell ourselves that Scotland's new speech restrictions could never be imposed south of the border, but, in many respects, the Hate Crime Act just brings Scottish law into line with the existing law in England and Wales.
An MSP is threatening Police Scotland with legal action if it doesn’t delete a 'hate incident (non-crime)’ recorded against him and scrap the guidance it's following, whereby it records all allegations of hate as HINCs.
The leak of the Police Scotland training materials telling officers they should target actors and comedians for 'hate speech' has intensified concerns that the new draconian legislation will kill comedy.
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