Scotland Becomes a Third-world Country

It is characteristic of third-world countries that there are severe restrictions on free speech. In particular, comments about religion often attract the wrath of the state. Here we have a guy being sent to prison for a few months for a few daft remarks about Catholics. Granted, they're not very nice, but any country that sends a person to prison for this has a warped sense of morality. And this is what they can do with the laws as they are now; if the proposed law on sectarian hate comes into effect, the penalties will be even more draconian.

A MAN who posted sectarian comments on a Facebook page about Celtic manager Neil Lennon has been given what is thought to be the toughest sentence for a football-related internet hate crime.

Stephen Birrell, 28, was jailed for eight months for posting a string of religious and racially-motivated comments on the social networking site between 28 February and 8 March.

He was arrested in the wake of a major police operation to crack down on people who had been posting hate-filled comments related to Rangers and Celtic following their volatile Scottish Cup replay on 2 March.

Sheriff Bill Totten told Birrell, from Dalmarnock, Glasgow, that the courts had to send “a clear message to deter others who might be tempted to behave in this way”.

One of the comments, posted a day before the Old Firm clash, read: “Hope they all die. Simple. Catholic scumbags ha ha.”

Two days after the match, which triggered a Scottish Government crackdown against football-related disorder, Birrell wrote: “Proud to hate Fenian tattie farmers.”

Birrell was also handed a five-year football banning order at Glasgow Sheriff Court for writing the comments on a Facebook page titled “Neil Lennon Should Be Banned”.

His lawyer, Iain McLennan, told the sheriff that Birrell had accepted what he had done, but struggles to understand the severity of his actions.

He said: “He finds it difficult just to comprehend how serious what he did was. But he does accept that what he did was wrong and gratuitously offensive.”

The sheriff told Birrell he wanted to “send a clear message that the right-thinking people of Glasgow and Scotland will not allow any behaviour of this nature, or allow any place in our society for hate crimes”.

He said: “The use of modern communications to spread or support abuse, or target groups of people because of their ethnic or racial background, has no place in our modern society and has no place in genuine support for any football club.”

Under the Scottish Government’s new anti-sectarianism legislation, anyone posting hate-filled messages online faces being jailed for up to five years.

Source: The Scotsman

No wonder he struggles to understand the severity of his actions. He's not the only one.

The guy should appeal this all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. They're a bunch of utopian do-gooders, but even they might see this as an infringement on free speech too far.

It's also characteristic of third-world countries that the law is not enforced impartially. The judges and police do whatever the government tells them to do, and target whoever the government tells them to target, not as a result of changes in the law of the land but through informal channels of communication and pressure exerted from on high. That is exactly what is going on here too. Why are we suddenly seeing this spate of prosecutions for religiously-motivated hate crimes? Is it because there are more of them? No. Is it because a new law has been passed, criminalising things that weren't criminal before? No. It is because the SNP government overreacted to a football match and started pressuring police forces to carry out prosecutions. The police are supposed to be independent of the government. They are there to enforce the law impartially. But in this case they just knuckle under and do what the gubmint tells them to do - just like in a third-world country.

Totalitarian Impulse Within the Scottish Government

In response to criticism of the proposed law on bigotry, the Scottish government revealed its totalitarian impulses.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman last night defended the legislation.

She said: "Racism, bigotry and sectarianism have no place in Scotland, and those who perpetrate such behaviour will be punished through the full force of the law. These new laws will send out a clear message that there is no place for bigots in a modern-day Scotland.

"If approved, anyone who peddles sectarian hatred - in any football stadium in Scotland, on the way to or from a game, or hiding behind a computer screen - could now face up to five years in jail."

Source: Scotsman
The phrase "have no place in Scotland" is uniquely expressive of the totalitarian impulse that lies behind this and much other do-gooder legislation. It's not that the Scottish government is alone in this. Many western governments now use similar language routinely and rarely find themselves challenged for it. But they should be.

With the sole exception of immigration policy and the problems that result from it, the idea that a government should decide what does or doesn't have a place in the country is fundamentally sinister. It is not the role of a government to attempt to alter the moral sensibility of its people.

If there are racists in Scotland, then racism has its place in Scotland. If there are morris dancers in Scotland, then morris dancing has its place in Scotland. If there are people who worship Adolf Hitler as some kind of demonic god in Scotland, then Hitler worship has its place in Scotland. It is the people who should decide what does or doesn't have a place in Scotland, not the government.

The notion of regulating a state of mind is also creepily totalitarian. To attempt to do this, or even to talk as if you were doing this, is to create actual or apparent thought crimes. All that a government can legitimately do is prohibit actions, not states of mind. Even if the racist action of denying someone a job on racist grounds, say, is made illegal, racism itself is not. Extending the rhetoric from the action to the state of mind delegitimises and dehumanises a section of the Scottish population. Of course this is the intent. But it is an anti-democratic, totalitarian intent.

Hate Crime Law Timetable Pushed Back

After preposterously claiming that waving the Scottish or British flags, singing Rule Britannia or the Flower of Scotland or making the sign of the cross could be a criminal offence, the SNP has now postponed the introduction of their proposed new hate crime legislation.

Opposition MSPs, both Old Firm clubs and the Church of Scotland had all opposed the speed at which the new laws were being pushed through parliament.

Alex Salmond announced today at First Minister's questions that the legislation would not be in place for the start of the football season in July and would instead be delayed for six months.

The Scottish Parliament's justice committee had expressed concern over the speed with which the bill was to go through.

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