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.

Source

At Last Some Voices of Reason on the Religious Hatred Law

Both the Herald and Scotsman have stories quoting various people expressing reservations about the upcoming Religious Hatred bill the SNP is planning to introduce. It's particularly interesting that some of the reservations are coming from the churches themselves.

After meeting Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham, who is piloting the Bill, the Right Reverend David Arnott, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “The speed at which it is being rushed through means it appears to lack scrutiny and clarity. The Government is rightly asking for support from across civic Scotland, but is not giving civic Scotland much time to make sure they are happy with the content.”

Catholic Church spokesman Peter Kearney said the “truncated timescale” reinforced the need for close scrutiny. He added: “Equally, however, the timetable does suggest that urgent political attention is being given to a high-profile problem. Tackling incidents of football-related intolerance in this way will allow a wider and longer debate to take place on sectarianism and its underlying causes, without the constant distraction of football-related incidents, which statistically account for less than 15% of sectarian offences in Scotland.”

The Law Society has also urged caution.

However, the Law Society of Scotland said the Bill is being pushed through Parliament too quickly and that the resulting lack of scrutiny may create legislation that is open to successful challenge.

Bill McVicar, convener of the society's criminal law committee, said: "We understand the importance of tackling sectarianism. This is a very serious issue and one that needs both attention and action from our political leaders. However, it is because of the importance of this issue that the Scottish Government needs to allow adequate time to ensure the legislation can be properly scrutinised.

It's good that there are now some prominent naysayers in this debate.

The actual text of the proposed bill has now been published here. Looking at it, it does seem less worrying that I feared it might be. I still don't agree with the restrictions on free speech, but it looks as though it won't have much effect on criticisms of Islam. First, the part of the bill that requires physical presence is specifically limited to "in relation to a regulated football match". Second, the part that relates to communications rather than physical presence requires an element of threat to be present and includes a reasonableness defence. Either Condition A or Condition B below must be fulfilled for the act to constitute an offence.

Condition A is that—
(a) the material consists of, contains or implies a threat, or an incitement, to carry out
a seriously violent act against a person or against persons of a particular
description,
(b) the material or the communication of it would be likely to cause a reasonable
person to suffer fear or alarm, and
(c) the person communicating the material—
(i) intends by doing so to cause fear or alarm, or
(ii) is reckless as to

...

Condition B is that—
(a) the material is threatening, and
(b) the person communicating it intends by doing so to stir up religious hatred.
(6) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to show that the communication of the material was, in the particular circumstances, reasonable.

The official press release about the bill also says this:

The offence will NOT:

Stop peaceful preaching or proselytising

Restrict freedom of speech including the right to criticise or comment on religion or non-religious beliefs, even in harsh terms

Criminalise jokes and satire about religion or non-religious belief

I still wish the bill would go away but it at least seems to be not as bad as I expected.

Scottish Government Preparing Indoctrination Programme for Children

There is an unbelievable article cum interview in the Times today featuring a so-called expert who says we need to brainwash children:

The twin scourges of sectarianism and addiction are closely linked and should be explained to children as young as ten, according to a world expert on conflict resolution.

Ministers have given a cautious welcome to the call, from Mary Sharpe, an international advocate, for school pupils in Scotland to be taught about the dangers of sectarianism, as well as about the risks of drink and drugs. The two, she believes, are closely linked.

Ms Sharpe has recently returned to Scotland after researching the radicalisation of young Muslims for Nato. She wants to set up a centre for conflict resolution in Edinburgh which, she hopes, will be able to help the fight against sectarianism.

Sure. She wants to set up a Centre for Conflict Resolution that will no doubt cost the Scottish taxpayer a few million a year.

She believes that sectarianism in Scotland is inextricably bound up with the nation’s problems with addictions — particularly with alcohol — and she is adamant that both addiction and conflict resolution have to be in the curriculum if Scotland is to become a tolerant country.

A spokesman for the First Minister, who will publish a Bill to tackle sectarianism next week, said that Ms Sharpe appeared to have a lot to offer the debate. “We would be very keen to take this farther and see what she has to say,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wee Eck gets ready to "criminalise online postings of religious hatred".

Alex Salmond has made the battle against sectarianism the immediate priority for his new administration and its first piece of legislation will be the anti-sectarianism Bill, which is due to be tabled before parliament later this week.

The Bill is expected to increase the maximum jail term for sectarian hate crimes from six months to five years, criminalise online postings of religious hatred and outlaw displays of sectarianism at football matches.

From all the hysteria about sectarianism, you would think there had been pitched battles in which hundreds of people had died. What in fact happened was that four players were sent off in an entertaining, rough-and-tumble football match. But these people have nothing better to do than invent imaginary solutions to problems that barely exist. And in this case their proposed remedy is far worse than the disease it is supposed to cure.

Ms Sharpe said she was delighted that Mr Salmond had identified the key importance of the link between addiction and sectarianism in his attempts to tackle the issue and she said she hoped that the election of the new SNP administration would provide an opportunity to take this work farther. “I am excited by the change in climate in Scotland and the willingness there now is for the country to face up to its demons,” she said.

...

She added that the only way the root causes of these issues could be tackled properly was to change the school curriculum and teach children about addiction and sectarianism from the age of ten. “We have to get into the schools."

"We have to get into the schools"! Creepy. This is like something out of the Soviet Union or Mao's China, and there is virtually no resistance to it. No one in public life is willing to draw attention to the dangers of ideologising education, of governments being allowed to indoctrinate children.

“We have to teach the teachers so they can make the children aware of what is happening and then they can influence their parents,” she said.

So not only do they want to brainwash the children; they want to use them as propaganda change agents to influence their parents. We are in George Orwell territory here.

And a look at this woman's bio makes it even more disturbing. She has deep-level connections to the power structures of the EU.

She practiced law for fifteen years in Scotland and in Brussels at the EC Commission where she developed her knowledge and experience of cross-cultural legal, political and business practice. In Brussels, she also trained as a jounalist in a specialist communications unit with senior operators from the BBC and the Financial Times for the then EC Commissioner for Science and Education, Edith Cresson, former Prime Minister of France. She was a speech-writer for several EC Commissioners and spoke on behalf of the EC Commission at conferences and seminars worldwide.