A Thousand Paper Cranes
Thanks to the dedication of our legal team in working over the Easter holiday, Wings has unexpectedly received the formal Opinion of legal counsel (hereafter called “the Opinion”, capitalised to avoid confusion with the ordinary use of the word in the article) with regard to the standing of the site in the light of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which comes into force tomorrow.
We publish the Opinion below, partly to assist those worried about the Act’s impact on them but unable to afford their own legal advice.
But we also do so to place Police Scotland on notice that anything published by Wings Over Scotland is done in the light of the greatest possible care having been taken to ensure compliance with the law, and that in such a context any future attempt/s to improperly interfere with our rights of free expression under Article 10 of the European Convention On Human Rights (ECHR) will be viewed with regard to pursuing the maximum available recourse for wrongful restriction of our lawful activities.
We have both funds and the will to pursue such action.
Wings Over Scotland does not – let us be frank – respect the quality of the Hate Crime Act, but it respects its existence as law and nothing we have written or will write in future is intended to contravene it.
And for the absolute avoidance of any doubt, it remains this site’s position, and my own personal position as its editor, at all times that every human being in Scotland, and indeed on Earth, deserves equal rights – be they transgender, disabled, black, white, male, female, straight, gay, old, young or possessed of any other characteristics, whether explicitly protected in law or otherwise.
We abhor all prejudice, harassment and persecution, and nothing on this site or on our social media should, plainly, ever be taken to imply support for such behaviours.
So to the Opinion itself. Click images to enlarge.
The first and arguably most important reassurance is the firm view of Counsel that anything published either on the site or our social media accounts prior to 1 April 2024 is safe from retrospective prosecution.
Such a view would in any sane world be common sense, but we no longer live in a sane world so we are glad to receive Counsel’s confirmatory interpretation that there is no need to “purge” past content.
[EDIT 1 APRIL] A reader also forwarded this from Police Scotland, which is specifically in regard to Humza Yousaf’s “WHITE!” speech but also states explicitly in wider terms that the HCA cannot be applied retroactively.
We also gratefully note Counsel’s view with regard to some specific examples of more strongly-worded content, such as that there would be no crime inherent under the Act in referring to trans ally Billy Bragg as a “big-nosed misogynist wanker”, nor in likening the actions of politicians and others to “grooming”, nor in satirical images such as this:
We’re also very pleased to be able to remotely offer some reassurance to sites like terfisaslur.com, She Won and Trans Crime UK, which are regularly attacked by trans activists, that Counsel considers their content within the law.
It is disturbing, but expected in the light of Craig Murray’s shocking and alarming article of 10 days ago, that the Scottish Government has taken it upon itself to police free speech not only in Scotland but across the entire planet. However, the theoretical danger of cross-border prosecution needs to be seen in the context of the rest of the Opinion – namely that the content of Wings is NOT in breach of the Act in the first place, let alone to the “extreme” degree which could conceivably invite such action.
[EDIT 1 APRIL] In an interview with the Today programme on Radio 4 on the day the Act came into force, Scottish Government minister Siobhian Brown expressly and firmly said that the act was NOT to be applied against people living outside Scotland, which we note with interest and hope Police Scotland do too.
We are, however, slightly surprised by the view that reference to transgender identity as a mental illness is seen by Counsel as the most “borderline” of the issues raised. It was officially regarded by the World Health Organisation as such until recently, and we continue to find great difficulty in finding any other way to characterise it.
(As does the WHO, which fudges the issue and avoids an alternative definition, simply classifying it under “sexual health”, which makes no logical sense whatsoever).
It’s not a physical illness – women aren’t suffering from some genetic or viral disorder that causes their vagina and ovaries to somehow form as a penis and testicles, and their hips to change shape, several years into their life – and in any other context a person’s perception of themselves as something they’re manifestly, empirically not (anorexics who think they’re fat, for example) would be simply and uncontroversially seen and treated by medical professionals as a mental health issue.
This is particularly clear in the case of “gender-affirming surgery”, such as young women having their breasts removed because the young women identify as male or “non-binary”. No suggestion is being made that there is anything medically wrong with their breasts.
Nor is it that the surgery is merely cosmetic in nature, because trans activists claim that it is “life-saving” and insist that the alternative outcome is suicide. The removal is therefore being done solely to address an issue located in the patient’s mind.
That issue MUST, therefore, be a mental-health condition and it MUST be a disorder, because we do not conduct non-cosmetic, “medically necessary” surgery on people with whom there is nothing wrong, and people who are mentally and physically healthy do not commit suicide.
Nor do we believe that, in any event, suggesting someone suffers from a mental illness is in any way intrinsically hateful. Mental health issues affect a large and growing percentage of the population – particularly the young, who are disproportionately represented among trans-identifying people – and it is not generally accepted to regard them with stigma.
It is the belief of this site that mental health is woefully underfunded in this country (and others), and that people suffering from what the WHO now calls “gender incongruence” should be entitled to receive appropriate and safe treatment to resolve the condition, as opposed to being humoured, fed experimental drugs or physically mutilated in a misguided and damaging attempt to “validate” it, an approach taken to absolutely no other mental-health ailment.
(Ironically, it is the Scottish Government which appears to regard this compassionate view as somehow problematic, and which is actively legislating to ban the treatment of gender dysphoria with therapy as “conversion practice”.)
Nevertheless, we note and welcome Counsel’s stated view that in any case, “we do not consider that [such views] would contravene the Act, especially in a context where there is an ongoing debate as to gender dysphoria as a psychiatric condition and the prevalence of autogynephilia”.
We also particularly note Counsel’s observation that “the veracity of the underlying facts on which the allegations in the article are made will be a relevant consideration”, or in other words that the truth is a valid defence.
Because it is also this site’s sincerely-held belief that what might be described in broad terms as “gender ideology” is in fact an ongoing scandal of criminal child abuse on a scale never before seen in Scotland or the UK, as well as a grave and mortal threat to the hard-won rights of women and gay people in particular, and the freedom-of-expression rights of everyone, and that sooner rather than later it will be universally accepted as such.
We consider the use of strong, satirical or “offensive” language to be both wholly appropriate and indeed necessary in that context in the service of informing the public, and make no apology for it, and we note Counsel’s repeated observation of Article 10’s protection of such speech, even where some find it insulting or hurtful.
While the Opinion in itself carries no force in law, we also note that the Act hinges at all points on the view of a “reasonable person” with regard to the determination of criminality, and we humbly submit the contention that Counsel including the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates would by any conceivable interpretation be considered “reasonable persons”.
In the light of all of the above, and in particular Counsel’s clear view that the protection of the ECHR’s Article 7 means “we see no room for a retrospective application of the Act”, and thereby removes any necessity to unfeasibly reassess over 6,400 historic posts and hundreds of thousands of tweets, it is the current intention of Wings Over Scotland to remain online in its present forms.
(The aforementioned view also of course means that all the deranged trans activists currently shrieking until they’re blue in the hair all over Twitter about the tsunami of reports they’re going to make about us at a minute past midnight will be wasting their time even more than they usually are.)
We shall of course after 1 April continue to strive to remain within the law at all times, as we have always done.
——————————————————————————-
AFTERWORD
Nothing in the Opinion, it should be noted, serves to nullify any of the criticisms that have been levelled at the Act in recent months and years. On the contrary, it confirms that many of them were and are justified.
The Opinion is still ultimately just an opinion – despite its conclusions, people including ourselves COULD still be arrested and/or prosecuted at the whim of activist and/or poorly-trained officers, be subject to confiscation of their phones, computers and other electronic equipment for months on end and placed in a state of fear.
Even if they’re not, the Act will still have a chilling effect on those who don’t wish to put their entire lives on the line over that risk, even if it’s a small one. The exclusion of certain demographics – most notably, but not limited to, women – still exposes the toxic ideological poison at the heart of the Scottish Government and the “external” lobby groups it funds.
And while the Act will still lead to an already-overworked police force being deluged with malicious and vexatious reports, we also remain of the view that for as long as the Act exists, people should report “hate” on a daily basis – not for malicious or vexatious reasons, but to prevent statistical distortion which could then be weaponised (as well as, naturally, to identify instances of hate crimes).
But we hope that won’t be for long, because the Act remains a dangerous and (hate) monstrous exercise in the worst sort of virtue-signalling, a vast bonfire of time and money and political credibility in the name of yet more abject pandering to the insatiable trans lobby, needlessly legislating for things that were basically all illegal already in slavish pursuit of the hopelessly-devalued currency of Stonewall Points.
The Act remains a grotesque, illiberal, poorly-drafted stain on Scottish public life which will create far more hatred than it ever solves. Along with the people who trampled over years of wise counsel from every sector of the public sphere to arrogantly push it through, it must go, and with every possible urgency.
Well done. Happy April Fools Day, Humza!
Whew.
Phew! Hooray! Well done Stu and Roddy Dunlop.
Light blue touch paper and stand well back…
Regarding “hate crime”; I don’t hate anything; it’s far too strong a word for casual use.
There’s a fair amount of things that I dislike or disapprove of, though.
Well done, sir. Well done.
Bob
As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now (it’s 10 minutes past midnight) when you start filling out the form and use the “exit quickly” button, it bounces you straight to…the BBC website!
I can only assume this is so they can collect numbers of people using the form, to be the first to report on it!
Great news Stuart (relatively speaking of course given that monstrosity of a bill is still about to come into force). Keep up the good work and fighting the good fight.
Basically
Let battle commence and the dice fall where they may
Rather than being the last ever WOS post, that was your greatest ever, loved every single word, jist pure magic.
Great news.
More power to your elbow!
Brilliant Rev,just Brilliant!
Thank you.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
At last some good news.
God bless Wings.
All over, er, bits of Stirling, Edinburgh Uni and mebbes Aberdeen, there are bearded men with blue hair wearing dresses and/or nappies plotting your comeuppance. Be afraid of this ‘Monstruous Regiment of Women’ ;-), be a wee bit of afraid but a brilliant job and helping other sane voices too. Congrats also to Sir Roddy of Dunlop, a Scottish President in waiting?
Radical Cartoons @ 12.11am That is troubling. Remember the effort to stitch Cliff Richard up? An innocent man (remind you of anyone?) but the police and the BBC were determined to bring him down. The difference, BBC and Police Scotland, is that we know what you’re up to this time. Sir Cliff had to defend himself. This time the Rev has a bit of support. Bring it on! I’m old and bound to die soon. It’ll be nice taking some scumbags down with me.
A welcome victory, as small as it may be, but common sense has a champion for now
I expected you would’nt be gone long if you had to shut things down, but I certainly did’nt expect you to be back before you’d gone, magic!
I’m looking forward to today.
Well done legal team, and to Stu for pursuing this to provide some much needed clarity. Something that is well beyond the competency of those who made it an Act.
I think everyone needs to bear in mind that although people are abbreviating this bill as the HCA, it is actually called the Hate Crime and PUBLIC ORDER (Scotland) Act 2021. The idea that a Scottish ‘public order’ bill should ever be considered to have extra-territorial application is ludicrous. The legal position ought to be that someone in England should not be culpable, even for an online publication referencing Scottish affairs, but anyone in Scotland amplifying something that would be a crime if committed in Scotland, then the reach of the criminal law should encompass the amplifying of the extra-territorial material only if the circumstances warrant it.
English legislation frequently mentions extra-territorial application explicitly, the HCPOSA does not mention it at all, the authorities had better follow the spirit of the statute and a sensible public policy unless they want to leave themselves open to substantial claims in damages. Having said that,when stupidity is possible, never bet against it!
I’m starting this week planning to inundate Police Scotland with offensive websites from around the world. Plan is to so swamp them with data they cannot reasonably enforce due to the problems with foreign jurisdictions , that any enforcement action in Scotland would be seen as malicious. Why pick on one case and not the 15000 other cases reported to the police.
On the mental illness opinion I agree with Stu. There’s another important argument to bear in mind. If I describe anorexia as a “mental illness”, or if I suggest that an anorexic is “mentally ill”, it’s an opinion that might be right or wrong. But no one could sensibly claim that it’s likely to stir up hatred against anorexics. No difference with transism.
Humza will be speechless reading this.
A dummy struck dumb.
Good job.
I’m glad to hear that your legal advice is that what you have previously posted wouldn’t breach the Act and that you should be able to continue posting in much the manner you’ve already been doing. Thanks for pursuing this matter and sharing the advice – as you say it’ll be helpful to others who may worry about the impact of the law.
I expect there will be some worrying cases as the police question & detain people & confiscate their devices in Scotland when vocal activists make multiple complaints about the same person or the same material simply because it states facts such as there are only 2 sexes and men cannot become women but hopefully once a few cases have been summarily dismissed by the courts then the procurators fiscal and the police will be less likely to pursue them unless there is evidence of genuinely abusive or threatening behaviour involved.
Re Billy Bragg being a big nosed misogynistic wanker.
I hope he doesn’t self id as Jewish
Very, very pleased to hear this, Stuart. Well done.
Glad to read the opinions of your counsel and know I’ll still be able to be informed through WoS and WoS on X.
If there is any sense to this world and this country of ours the Act will end up in the same place as the offensive behaviour football or whatever it was called another stupid unworkable piece of legislation.
I think it important to distinguish between, “trans activists” and ordinary trans.people who just want to get on peacefully with their lives. The more fanatical of the former, beautifully captured in the above image of the Twitler (*),youth might be more accurate with the described as, “transfascists.” Their Führerin well deserves her place alongside them.
(*) I believe your original coinage was actually, “twitter youth”. If you borrowed my own modification from elsewhere here, or elsewhere, consciously or subconsciously, I am not remotely miffed, but grateful!
WOS is a blog, registered and published in England. It provides articles and facts relating mostly to Scotland.
It can be accessed by any person living in Scotland, Germany, Madagascar or anywhere else on the planet.
You have to physically access it by typing in the address (stored?) in your browser.
You are not publishing it but merely reading the contents of an already published and freely available article.
You can if you wish comment on it, much like you would with the “National”, New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or maybe the Age in Australia.
It’s called Freedom of Speech.
Chapeau Roddy Dunlop and Rachel Breen.
Thank you for this Stuart, just thank you.
Well done Stu and Roddy this will give great comfort to bloggers and activists. It will however probably not stop the SNP/ Scottish government, from attempting to use their police force to intimidate those who dare to tell the truth, but bloody well done.
Top notch writing.
Excellent.
Stu,
Be cautious. The cases quoted in this Opinion all confirm both the extra territorial reach and the continuing publication. The Opinion quotes no cases the other way.
It depends on saying “Naw, we don’t think they are that stupid”. It assumes the good faith of the system and ignores the fact that, while it would indeed be impossible to police the world, the Crown Office may just go after political enemies ie you.
Stu,
Please be cautious. The cases quoted in this Opinion all confirm both the extra territorial reach and the continuing publication. The Opinion quotes no cases the other way.
It depends on saying “Naw, we don’t think they are that stupid”. It assumes the good faith of the system and ignores the fact that, while it would indeed be impossible to police the world, the Crown Office may just go after political enemies ie you.
Well done, Sir!
Also, fine work by Roddy Dunlop ans,Rachel Breen.
I was expecting the ending of “Breaker Morant” but instead, to my great joy, I got the final scenes of “The Professionals” (1966 movie,with Lee Marvin).
They’ll probably still try and come for you, however, much to their extreme
discomfort and discomfiture,they may now be the ones up against the brown shaft.
If, as Marie Joseph Eugène Sue tells us:
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,,,”
I suggest a 2 litre tub of Crolla’s vanilla ice cream ?
Thank you for your work on this Stuart, it is highly evident that our political classes within and without HR were and are quite content to vote for bills and laws that restrict the freedom of expression of the general public
I believe part of their reasoning comes down to the fact that voters within the public sphere are outraged at the overall situation within Scotland and the wider uk (poverty and homelessness) and are making their opinions and anger more widely known by contacting their political representatives through social media and various platforms to inform them of their anger and distrust and are demanding they do something positive to rectify the situation
In doing so politicians are running scared of what may happen if the anger escalates so they are using this HCB as a tool to shut down and silence any opposition or outspoken criticism of their ineptitude
Many many people have commented, myself included, that they have sent numerous emails to all of our representatives complaining or opposing certain actions or policies they have committed or carried out and these emails either receive no responses or an office worker responds with the party decision
Politicians love the salary, pension perks, subsidised meals, expenses and stature, the job would be great if it wasn’t for those damn constituents and their constant demands
Fantastic news Stu!
Goodnight, WOS, see you when the fog clears.
Rev. Stuart Campbell, pay heed to Craig Murray’s advice.
They are out to get you, and they will if you continue to publish.
This legal opinion will not save you.
The only saving grace is this hate causing Act cannot be applied retrospectively.
There cannot be any person of prosecutable age who hasn’t said something in the past that has hurt someone else’s feelings.
Stop publishing until the Act has been repealed, which will be sooner rather than later.
Make use of the time to file numerous complaints under the Act with Police Scotland on a daily basis.
Posted my previous comment before reading this threads article. To say i’m as happy as a pig in shite would be the understatement of the century. I particularly liked this bit:
“But we also do so to place Police Scotland on notice that anything published by Wings Over Scotland is done in the light of the greatest possible care having been taken to ensure compliance with the law, and that in such a context any future attempt/s to improperly interfere with our rights of free expression under Article 10 of the European Convention On Human Rights (ECHR) will be viewed with regard to pursuing the maximum available recourse for wrongful restriction of our lawful activities. We have both funds and the will to pursue such action.”
My all-time favourite website is back with a bang.
OH HAPPY DAYS! LMFAO!
I’m so happy you are still with us. Scotland is in such a dark place, but it would be even darker without yourself and your website.
The snp have made this April fools day quite something, they have taken is all for fools, and sadly it doesn’t end at 12 am.
Thank you for all your hard work and determination, and thanks to Roddy Dunlop also.
That’s fairly reassuring Stu. More power to your keyboard
I am pleased to read this this morning. I do still think they will come after you, but you know that and are prepared for it. Just make sure you have backups and business continuity plans in place. But nothing will can spare you the distress and fear the process will put you through should it come to that and you are a brave man for being prepared to be one of the good people who did not stand by and do nothing.
The real issues with this act, are that it utterly stifles free discussion of gender issues by ordinary people (who cannot access views of legal counsel). Most importantly, however, is that it will trash the public’s perception of the rule of law and order, especially damaging to the police.
And let’s not forget, ordinary police officers, who should be out chasing REAL criminals who murder kill, rape, batter etc..will be tied up with a deluge of hysterical reports of ‘this person on twitter said “trans people are odd” – I want them found and prosecuted, even if they do live in Venezuela’
This law is absurd.
Like I say, unthinkable, but that is where this gender ideology has brought us. This law does NOT protect gay (same sex attracted, i.e. homosexual) people who do not believe in gender stuff at all, and especially does NOT protect actual women at all.
The act is the very epitome of creating thought crime. In short, think how we tell you to think, or else.
Well done Stu and if they do choose to single you out and come after you I will be happy to contribute to any legal costs you incur.
Well done Stu. Keep on blogging.
‘Overworked police force’. Lol.
lovely..
I’m glad my money got put to such good use.. Oh, and I await my badges too 🙂
I take it Counsel get paid by the word 😛
April Fool’s, revenge-craving tantrum-throwing tongue-tie-tryers! Get this album ben ye!
link to scottishculturalcringe.bandcamp.com
“it must go, and with every possible urgency”
Similarly applies to the SNP, which BTW I hate.
Looking forward to polling day – Karma’s a bitch.
No mention of the title, which is one of the more thought-provoking that the Rev. has come up with, link to en.wikipedia.org
Every day that Wings is online is another step towards the light.
Thank you very much for obtaining and publicising this opinion, Stuart. It is both valuable and appreciated.
Whilst this pensioner can’t sign up to contribute financially on an ongoing basis, I’ll continue to “crowdfund” as I can when the need arises.
And, I’ll be wearing my WOS Hate badges with pride; and celebrating the fact that, with typical Wings irony, I’ll be wearing a ‘Hate’ badge because I don’t hate.
Notwithstanding Counsel’s opinion I am struggling with the equivalence of alleged hate speech published in England with say fraud perpetuated in England against a supplier based in Scotland shipping goods south.
In the fraud scenario the supplier is shipping the goods in good faith. However we all know that some groups have professional offence takers and it seems to me to be highly probable that said individuals will be scouring published material for things to report to the authorities. That is hardly acting in good faith. Difficult to prove I expect but nevertheless not acting in good faith.
Having said that I think what will do for this law is the inevitability that a member of the so-called protected groups will breach it. They are not exactly shrinking violets when it comes to hurling abuse about so I expect it will only be a matter of time before they fall foul of it. It would be no surprise if opponents of this act are equally diligent in scouring the output of protected group members looking for potential breaches. I think there is a high probability the whole thing will sooner or later collapse in chaos like the law that precipitated Sturgeons fall from “grace”.
In short it’s a bad law and they rarely survive long after encounters with the real world.
As for those seeking the repeal of the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, this is only getting started, link to nakedcapitalism.com
Top o’ the mornin’ to y’all.
A long, long time ago, I vaguely remember reading Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’. Whether this was while i was in school or under my own steam i have no idea. Anyway, in the play, there is a dramatic ‘climax’ when at the end of a heated and interminable argument, between Vladimir and estragon, one accuses the other with the lowest of insults, ‘Critic!’
I would humbly suggest, in the interests of reasonableness and fairness, that the Scottish state of absolutely bellend numpties, legislate to withdraw all copies of the play available in public libraries and bookstores and that henceforth all new published editions of the play will strike out the above mentioned slur, and replace it with the word, ‘Politician!’
Oh! they really are the lowest of the very low.
I’m delighted that this opinion (from a source with considerable weight in the Scottish legal world, I gather) indicates that sanity is not entirely absent from Scots public affairs. Congratulations to the Editor.
However I think the Act has already done damage-to the police; to be seen as the storm troops of the demented, incompetent and sexually-obsessed SNP/Greens does no favours to them- though I imagine many many officers are disgusted at the position they are placed in.
Now it’s a question of whether anyone in the police or Crown Office wants to ‘spin the wheel of justice’.
Interesting opinion from counsel on the matter.
And today Sally Hughes is visiting a police station in Perth to secure Police Scotland’s help and guidance on specimen statements and how they may fall or not fall to be a Hate Crime.
I hope that Sally will receive the help and guidance required. Police Scotland in their Web site are calling for people to come forward and report perceived hate crime whether personally experienced or witnessed. They have further declared if a person is unsure they should still report it and the police will help.
Clearly Police have extensive and deep knowledge of what is and what isn’t Hate Crime and so they must provide the help and clarification that Sally, an ex senior policewoman herself is asking for.
If Police Scotland cannot do that then they expose themselves to be partisan and prejudiced, partisan and unfit in word and deed and wholly uncommitted to crime prevention.
People need to know what the law is. The Police adverts showing a young man of around teenage years sitting at a bus stop whilst around four or five others of the same age bang from the other side of perspex bus station does not seem to me to be a hate crime. Kids and teenagers bang and make a noise all the time – and it’s not a hate crime. It happens in the playground every day of the week.
Hate crime Mr Plod? How about food banks, fuel poverty, drug dealing, drug deaths, financial crime bleeding people dry, what about that.
Or what of the police advert’s clarion call of sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Is that police advert the real message about hate crime.
Or are the police just thuggish donkeys doing their master’s bidding fishing for crime that isn’t there.
.
It’s a new dawn. I’m off oot for a long walk.
The good thing is i live in an area with a straight (very tight) fight between SNP and Tories
Many of us are not voting snp now and have joined Alba but if they dont stand it was giving us real heartache.
Now we just wont vote they reap what they sow
Also does not matter what legal advice you get remember what happened with Craig Murray and the bias shown that got him jailed against other on side newspapers
There are, I presume, no specific laws against bravery, courage and dogged determination. If I’m right about that, then Stuart Campbell (and the rest of us), have nothing to fear from this particular piece of doomed legislation: taking effect as of April 1st 2024. If a Manifesto of the sorely-scunnert is required, the above post has surely supplied us with the nuts-and-bolts with which to build such a Manifesto. Stellar stuff, Ed. Thank you!
I’m still peed off we are not allowed report age related hate crime. I was up for scaring my great grandchildren. Tried using the “other” section but no still can’t report if it’s related to age. Wonder if Police Scotland hate old people.
Reads like there is still a fair amount of scope for stating one’s opinion. Therefore I feel more confident that making a statement calling a transgender woman a man is less likely to result in a visit from plod.
Nicely done.
The SNP handlers must be quite pleased with this squirrel.
No need to address Independence now before the GE.
You have the support of me and my wife to take anything to the ECHR.
We differ from you on things on the normal political spectrum but from where SNP/Greens stand the normal political spectrum looks like the distant recall of long childhood summers seen with a rosy glow and only dimly remembered. We need fighters.
Break a leg sweetie!
Thankyou Stu.
Didn’t expect to see this website today. Pleasant surprise.
I almost feel sorry for Roddy Dunlop having to wade through the slop of the HCB and make some sense out of it.
Am I alone in finding it ridiculous that the offence is ‘stirring up’? It is so imprecise and vague. What the fuck does it actually mean? Ask 10 people you’d get ten different answers.
Then you get to the corker, ‘reasonable people’. Oh that makes me laugh. Is Lady Dorrian reasonable? I don’t find her reasonable at all. So who ‘judges’ what is reasonable?
And then the inclusion of merely ‘insulting’ behaviour… that could be anything, it is all in the eye of the beholder and casts a vast net. Micro aggressions etc garbage…
It is total shit from top to bottom. The SNP are numpty arseholes and this is just the deeply flawed football offensive behaviour fiasco scaled up by several orders of magnitude.
Talk about not learning your lesson… Jesus fuck. The only good result of this Hate Crime Bill will be to make even more people hate the SNPG than already do.
This is an abomination of a bill. Doomed.
Craig Murray
1 April, 2024 at 2:41 am
“Stu,
Please be cautious. The cases quoted in this Opinion all confirm both the extra territorial reach and the continuing publication.”
=====
Siobhian Brown, Minister for Victims and Community Safety, SEEMS to disagree. Speaking a short time ago, on the Today programme, she claimed that someone in England mis-gendering a person in Scotland, for example, would be NOT be a matter for Police Scotland. Most of the interview is a masterclass from the Sturgeon School of Evasiveness. You will hear her on BBC Sounds about 8.18am on the Today programme. Interestingly, she follows Peter Tatchell, who is NOW quite critical of the Act!
But don’t look for the interview on Good morning Scotland. The same minister refused to be interviewed there.
That’s tremendously good news to wake up to this spring morning, fairly puts a spring in my step.
Thank you beyond words for the effort you have put into this Stu.
Bullies are at least on notice now that they will be resisted. Yes, they are bullies. The world and this country could be a far better place if THEY take their hate back, and instead put their energies into building better.
I for one will be happy to contribute more if more is required. For too many of us, giving a wee bit money is about all we find ourselves able to do nowadays.
Thank you again, and thanks in a huge measure to those legal bods who considered this and have put their names to a powerful opinion.
A candle glimmering through a crack in the darkness this morning.
One thing that is well worth bearing in mind is that all these drop-in centres of hatred will become data controllers under the Data Protection Act, which will place them under some very stringent requirements in terms of data storage and processing, and making data available to data subjects.
You can bet your house that the half-arsed clowns of the SNP/Greens will never have thought of that. Might be worth popping in to the Glasgow sex shop and asking innocently what training the staff have had in DPA compliance, just for the pleasure of seeing the glaikit look on their faces…
Congratulations to Rev Stu for this timely reprieve at the eleventy eleventh hour!
It’s fantastic news for Scotland and for supporters of truthful journalism everywhere.
So, just sometimes, miracles do happen.
And for the avoidance of all doubt going forwards, I have always loved, respected and had the highest possible opinion of all posters BTL and always will.
Hate? Fits that aboot? Nae in ma vocab, soz.
I hope this works, Mr. WOS. For everyone.
If someone on here is posting defamatory statements or ‘stirring-up hate’, whatever the fuck that actually means, do the rozzers contact Wings for an IP address or can they identify you using others methods (ISPs maybe)?
I am pretty sure SC has never written anything hateful but as Craig points out above, these dingbats just make it up as they go along, and only ever apply the law against their political enemies.
Indeed this Hate Bill might really be the Get Stuart Campbell And Shut Him The Fuck-Up Bill in disguise. I really would not be that surprised. They are that petty and small minded.
But ultimately this is the right call, fuck em. Sure they could make it miserable for SC, for a time, as they did the Rangers Liquidators, but we all know how that ended up. Taken to the cleaners… If I were you I’d be almost hoping they did attempt a malicious prosecution. They are shit at it.
Get everything on a cloud so you are independent of any device just in case…
I cannot describe how relieved and delighted I was early this morning when I discovered that this blog was back and with a huge defiant, bang.
When I saw the article above, this verse from the lyrics of the song “No pasaran” crossed my mind:
“Aunque me tiren el puente
Y también la pasarela
Me verás pasar el Ebro
En un barquito de vela”
My interpretation of the above:
“If you bring down my bridge of stone
and you bring down my makeshift bridge
you will still see me crossing the river
using a small sailing boat”
I appreciate the enormous courage this decision has taken Rev. None of us here are under any illusion that your blog is not a prime target for the establishment and has been for years. They tried it first through Dugdale. Then with that reporter. They demonised you, insulted you, arrested you, tried to silence you and when that failed, they attempted to block SNP people to read this or cite this blog. This legislation is them throwing the kitchen sink at your blog.
It is my firm belief that one of the purposes of this toxic legislation is to stifle freedom of thought and expression of the people of Scotland. But the other purpose is to block every platform that until now has served as a vehicle for “non-compliant” independence supporters to communicate, bypass the propaganda of the MSM, scrutinise and hold our corrupt mandarins to account, exchange ideas and to organise.
There are an awful lot of uncomfortable rides ahead, starting with the con “green” ports, Mr Salmond’s new court case, the outcome of operation branchform, the outcome of the genocide in Gaza, a pro-devolutionist manifesto from the SNP, and an ever-growing mass of voters turning their backs in disgust to political parties.
Rendering silent blogs like this, Yours for Scotland, Barrheadboy or The Grouse Beater to cite just but a few, and of course to force self-censoring in twitter seeks primarily, in my own opinion, to impair communication between yes supporters and block our ability to hold this toxic government to account and to reorganise. It is the isolating and divisive tool of last resort.
Let’s not forget that this toxic legislation, which knowingly impinges on our fundamental right of freedom of expression, was allowed to go through parliament by the unelected representative of the crown sitting in Scotland’s government cabinet, despite knowing that those in HOlyrood had no mandate nor the support of the people of Scotland to impose this on us.
Let’s not forget either that this impingement on our fundamental rights of freedom of expression was assented by the present monarch. This is another example of imposition of absolute rule on Scotland in violation of our Claim of Right.
Upwards and onwards, Rev. If this deliberately toxic legislation does not kill Wings and freedom of speech within the yes movement, it will only serve to make them stronger.
It is also my personal view that the imposition of this law represents an scandalous misuse of taxpayers’ funds and police time. This should be scrutinised and those responsible held to account. At the end of the day, it is our money they are wasting and our police force they are rendering unfit for purpose. I think we should request, weekly, under freedom of information request, an update on how the costs of this travesty are mounting week on week in terms of legal advise, police time costs, IT costs, etc, etc, etc.
Our Taxpayers’ funds are not to be thrown down the toilet in stupid and experimental legislation which deliberately clashes with fundamental human rights. Those funds are there to be used for our public services to run and function for the benefit of the people of Scotland, not for the benefit of criminals, careerists, external interests, perverts or the crown.
While they happily throw money at this crap, they constrain the NHS by imposing the implementation of “savings” which put the continuity of some services under threat. From the perspective of a taxpayer, this amounts to gross negligence and therefore those responsible must be held to account.
God bless you sir for your courage, doggedness and determination.
I look forward with pleasurable anticipation to my future morning reads of Wings even though I find some of the hatred of the English ( I’m a fellow Celt but married to an Englishwoman) expressed by some posters irrational and hard to take.
Come the general election later this year I think most of us on this site except the ones who would vote for a haggis with a SNP badge will know how to mark our ballot papers.
Bring it on
Why have Police Scotland taken the picture of a WHITE! man with a bad haircut and overlaid it on shards of glass next to the words in large text ‘HATE HURTS’?
Suddenly it is not rainbows of ethnic diversification and sea of non-WHITE! faces. Instead it is a thuggish looking white bloke who I thought initially was Joey Barton.
It is as if Police Scotland have a presumption that Hate comes only from WHITE! men, as that is all they feature in their somewhat sinister broken glass imagery, next to HATE HURTS.
Are Police Scotland inciting physical retribution and harm against the man whose face is cut into shards in the poster? Is that not the subliminal message here, kill Joey, kill whitey.
It is very insulting and racist from Police Scotland, it is targeting a group based on its sex and its race and it seems to be inciting some sort of violent retribution again the WHITE! man in the poster (Joey Barton’s love child)
I think I might have to report this.
So pleased you don’t have to give into these bullies
[…] the new Act covering ‘stirring up hatred’ could, according to a legal opinion obtained by the Wings Over Scotland group, end up criminalising those who, in the context of the debate over the Trans issue, make the […]
* Maybe * not as epochal as the original , but the Easter Rising of WOS is excellent news for anyone who values Truth and excellent journalism in it’s service .
Good man , Stuart . May the road rise with you
Strewth! That’s encouraging.
I had. Visions of incarceration in Bellmarsh for at least 12 years without a charge until extradition to Scotland.
Well done, sanity prevails.
No doubt daft acts will either on the vine as citizens wake up.
Onwards and upwards
????????????????
Yay! Well done that man!
We should not be so surprised, for oppressive laws are part and parcel of everyday existence within a colonial society, and where:
“The native… hardly ever seeks for justice in the colonial framework” (Frantz Fanon).
Inter ethnic violence and the awkward complexities of «hate» crime.
link to spiked-online.com
And how governments may make things worse.
On the temporal issue (perhaps I missed it). If I were to retweet etc today stuff from your blog/twitter posted before today, would I be liable?
The advice is encouraging re. the low likelihood of a successful prosecution. HOWEVER it does not stop malicious & vexatious complaints being made to the police with resulting in expense (legal & replacing computers etc) + stress + NCHI recording.
Congratulations Stu on the reassurance you have of being able to maintain your website and inform us of these equal rights issues, alongside the daft Scottish Independence stuff (oops was that a hate crime?).
I’m visiting Scotland for the first time in about 15 years this summer – I’d better keep quiet about these topics when I’m in the pub. I wonder if my wife will still get the ‘loaded’ comments about being English that were a regular experience when I used to visit Scotland with my English family, and which put me off returning for so long.
Off topic I know but is there an explanation why I read the SNP will get over 40 seats in an election and then in the next less than 20.
Wonder which one Humza believes
Congratulations on facing these rogues down Rev
This has really cheered me up no end!
I ‘heart’ Wings & Roddy Dunlop
I see Peter Tatchell is critical of the bill. I have strongly mixed feelings about this man but no can argue that he has been playing with fire most of his life. That fire has blown back on him in recent years and he’s had a taste of what it’s like when campaigners decide you’re next in their sights. That said he’s welcome on board. The more the merrier.
Oh happy day !!!
Great news Rev. Keep up the fight. I hope you realise how many people and how much support you have.
Oh, and happy April Fools’ Day, First Minister. I am positively aquiver wondering what your next policy triumph is going to be. Never a dull day with the SNP at Holyrood.
Delighted that WOS continues.
However, amongst many reasons to be wary is that the Tory right (and these days probably Keir Starmer as well) frequently call for UK to withdraw from ECHR; mainly so it cannot interfere with their migrant deportation policies. If that were to happen, the protections that the Doughty Dunlop says ECHR affords to the Rev would disappear.
But, for now, rejoice.
This is really good news. Maybe I missed it but will Wings (or any other blogger) be held responsible for publishing hate speech made by someone posting here, in the btl comments ?
I’m going to join the protest outside Holyrood today.
I don’t know much about it but looks as if there’s going to be a lot of people coming from Glasgow.
The one thing I love about Scotland and particularly Glasgow is the sense of humour.
‘Humza’s Hate Crime Dictat’ doesn’t stand a chance against it.
That cunt Humza is going to be laughed off the stage.
Oh shut up! That’s the way we talk in Scotland especially in Glasgow.
Tried to complete the complaint form, stumped at the contact details for ‘person you are concerned for’. Won’t accept submission until those fields are complete.
What have others done for that section?
Alba Andy?
You are correct about the ECHR. One of the main reasons I voted to remain in the EU was because I did not want the ‘Tories’ deciding about my human rights.
Here we are with the ‘Tartan Tories’ at Holyrood doing the job for them.
Is your moniker a hate crime Alba Andy?
Great stuff, Rev
All hail Roddy Dunlop
I was seriously thinking of getting burner phone as if mine was taken by the plod, I’d be lost.
Apart from that I’ll continue to write what I wish as I’m retired so can’t be blacklisted or sacked.
The Act needs repealed but until then, I’m reporting every politician that discriminates against me, a white heterosexual boomer
Following Cynicus’ post, I listened to the Siobhian Brown interview on Today (available on BBC Sounds).
Despite trying to set up a positive spin, she abdicated all responsibility on specifics to Police Scotland. Certainly when it came to “misgendering.”
When challenged on their training, pointed out that it wasn’t just a 2 hour PowerPoint. They also had…some contact details for others, if they get stuck.
She specified that it was an Act for Scotland. So people posting outside Scotland would fall outside the enforcement scope of the Act.
Not in the interview, but none of the above stops reports being made. They will all be investigated. Even if some fall at the first hurdle, it looks like they will all be recorded against the subject of the report. Our FM has made some chilling comments that these are some kind of underlying hate indicator, which is utter nonsense.
Peter Tatchell’s long experience of being arrested under Acts concerning incitement and reasonableness easily pointed out the deliberate gaps, that can be used by government and the police.
From the Bute House agreement fanzine:
“PATRICK Harvie has defended the Hate Crime Act, saying the legislation is being “wildly misrepresented” and dragged into a “culture war space”.”
Absolute rubbish, Mr Harvie. Please do not insult our intelligence. This is bad law and has been bad law from its inception. If you are naive enough to not realise of that, then you are unequipped to be in our parliament and should give up the seat.
From where I am sitting, it seems you are now attempting to excuse the inexcusable. The thing is that, by doing so, you are not representing your constituents or heaven forbid, the well-being or interests of the people of Scotland. You appear to seek to excuse and satisfy you own interests and those from the external actors you are using our parliamentary seat to represent.
This piece of toxic legislation was dragged into a “culture war space” from the very beginning and by the very same individuals who refused to include the protected characteristic of “sex” within the same legislation. Because, by deliberately discriminating women and men from protection, they made them a fair target for the hateful abuse of others carefully protected under the act.
This legislation was also dragged into a “culture war” the minute police Scotland used a young white man from a deprived area as the example of source of hate. In my view that was appalling discrimination of the majority of the Scottish young men and an unacceptable display of hate in itself.
So, please do not take us for fools.
This toxic law impinges on the Scottish people’s fundamental right to freedom of expression, rendering us second rate citizens. This toxic legislation incites hate to be directed to women by deliberately leaving them unprotected. The police campaign appears to single out white young men as the fair target for reporting hate. Even a child can see that.
Realising of and highlighting this state-sponsored discrimination and abuse, and shouting it from the top of our lungs is not “misrepresenting” anything, Mr Harvie. On the contrary. It is simply exposing it for the disgrace it is and exposing the ultimate foul intention of those who pushed and voted this through: to silence dissent in Scotland, particularly from women and the white majority that represents the population of Scotland.
As a citizen of Scotland, I am disgusted at such display of contempt. I am disgusted that those who claim to represent me in Scotland’s parliament are abusing Scotland’s seats like this to impose authoritarianism and forcing Scotland into silence. I am disgusted that the police force, instead of investigate and fight against real crime, allows itself to be redirected to this nonsense and worse, they seem to contribute to the hate fest by singling out white Scottish young men as the target for hate reporting.
So shame on those responsible for the plotting of this foul piece of legislation; shame on those responsible for its creation; shame on those who, calling themselves legal minds “advising” the government or even sitting unelected in the middle of the cabinet, allowed this aberration which impinges on the fundamental right of the people of Scotland to freedom of expression, to ever enter our parliament; shame on those who thought that demonising young white men in the police campaign for this toxic legislation was ever acceptable; and shame on all those who abused Scotland’s parliamentary seats to force the passing of this so it could then be abused to paralyse the people of Scotland in fear of prosecution, particularly in the face of the crown office having an unacceptable history in malicious prosecutions without anybody ever been properly held to account.
The only misrepresentation here is your own, Mr Harvie. You misinterpreted the people of Scotland as being idiots who are zipped at the back. You misinterpreted your position in our parliament as being to serve your own agenda and that of the external actors you really represent, rather than serving the people of Scotland you were elected to represent.
You are sitting in the parliament of Scotland, Mr Harvie, not on the sofa of your own lounge where you can dictate who uses your TV remote control and how. The seat in parliament you are using is not your seat. It is the people of Scotland’s seat.
So shame on you for displaying such contempt towards the people of Scotland who are paying your salary. Shame on you for now attempting to to rub our nose in it by pretending it is all our own fault for misinterpreting something which was left deliberately vague to encourage its misinterpretation.
Roll on the next election so we can sack these wannabe dictators engaged in abusing our parliamentary seats to demonstrate the most despicable level of contempt for our democratic and fundamental freedom of expression rights.
When Humza entered politics I really liked and admired him a lot.
He hasn’t changed race since then but other things have.
I no longer like or admire Humza just the opposite.
Being that we don’t have a ‘Don’t Like’ monster as yet I should be safe to say that.
I’m presuming the opposite of like is ‘don’t like’ although I have been know to use the word hate instead.
Is it not bigoted to divorce your wife because she is not a good enough muslim?
Bob Johnston @ 10.50
I fear that Mr Thatchell will indeed experience the results of Hosea’s warning re “sewing the wind and reaping the whirlwind”. However whilst respecting to an extent his clinging to his principles (how many homosexuals would go to court to defend the right of a street preacher to denounce homosexuality) he’s never really struck me as the most equable of activists.
Still, my enemies enemy may yet prove a strong ally.
@Ian brotherhood
I did one for HY white speech, I ticked me.
I would think that would cover it no matter what your complaining about,if it offends you in any way, even if its about a woman.
I wonder if Our Friends in the South, getting this story today on MSM, think it an April Fool gag on the scale of Richard Dimbleby’s spaghetti tree of the last century.
I suspect that you’re getting support from many areas previously considered hostile to you. It IS gratifying that people are now beginning to defend their freedoms and ironic that some ‘go’ to their old enemy to defend their rights. I am delighted that you have completed the task so thoroughly and carefully. You have solid support on here, of course.
Although I do sometime wish you were more selfish in your labour. You work like a trojan for others and it must wear you down on occasion.
As ever, thanks and tell Mr Cairns I shall be expecting a cartoon as usual
Personally I think Sadako is totally responsible for making all the cranes but I guess Ms Coerr found it more useful to her personal fiction for the heroine to die and friends complete the task for her.
In a similar vein I give you all of the credit for keeping Scotland relevant in online media.
Great stuff but still be careful; as someone commented elsewhere ‘the process is the punishment’. Still, good to know that you have the resources to fight if necessary and remember this groupie and the rest of your fan club are always ready to chip in if needed.
If we have a ‘Hate Monster’ shouldn’t we also have a ‘Love Monster’
Would that be any more ridiculous than having a ‘Hate Monster’
Bear with me the ‘Love Monster’ is a brand new idea which just popped into my head.
Gotta go now to get ready to go to Holyrood hopefully I’ll be back later with more about ‘The Love Monster’
Fingers crossed I don’t get arrested for attending the protest.
holymacmoses @ 12.05pm I doubt the Rev and I have much in common politically but I have never regarded him as an ‘enemy.’ The SNP, in becoming the common enemy of all right-thinking Scots, has reminded us that we can agree to disagree. Maybe we needed their darkness to stop us being so complacent about the light.
Story just breaking is that Reform UK has just suspended two of its Scottish candidates due to their having expressed potentially racist, sectarian, prejudices hate crime sentiment
Now think whatever you may think of Reform UK, the concerns about one of the suspended candidates was that Humza Yousaf should not hold the Scottish Rugby Cup because he is more Pakistani than Scottish.
Now given Mr Yousaf’s rant against ” white, white, white” this does seem to be an offensive comment, far less a hate crime. To the contrary the ( brown skin?) ranter calling out people on the colour of their white skin is surely the bigot.
Could you imagine someone calling out too many blacks, blacks, blacks, or slanty eyes, or other people based upon their genotype.
I therefore now with the implementation of this act call upon Mr Yousaf and the courage of his convictions too call outrage at ” white, white, white” people. Let this vile racist say it again for the avoidance of doubt so that folks can see him for what he is.
The guy comes across as a thug, be it conspiring to unjustifiably and by deceptive means cast a well
respected nursery in Dundee as racist, or to be convicted of driving without insurance whilst driving to an overnight stopover with a women not then his wife, or whilst avoiding crucial votes that would offend his religion, or promoting his second wife and cousin as candidates, or even possibly aiding the selection of proudly Asian accountants in England to undertake SNP audits.
Maybe these are hallmarks of someone like Yousaf but on top of the white, white, white rant the least that can be said is that they don’t give a good look.
Hollyrood has a bit of time until the next election but I think when given the opportunity Mr Yousaf and his ilk will be ” gone, gone, gone” Political choice will clear them out with not a jot of racism whatsoever.
The political fight against the SNP has only just begun.
Interesting, I appreciate the time and effort taken to produce this response (“put it in the envelope then…”) I find especially interesting the comments on ‘ex post facto’ legislation
Something I regularly mention to people, is that the UK has no specific constitutional bar to applying ex post facto legislation (including criminal) unlike the greater number of nations globally (some surprising regimes among them) which if not outlawing ex post facto leguskatiin completely, certainly imposes limitations*
The UK of course operates under the concept of Parliamentary Sovereignty being supreme and cannot brook limitations on its powers – ergo there is no limit or bar to Parliament enacting ex post facto legislation – criminal or otherwise.
Scotland, whether we like it or not, is constrained by the UK Pariament’s Sovereignty, but may also lever that for the purposes of enacting ex post facto law. I doubt there is any bar to the Hate Crime Bill being altered to be retrospective.
Ex post facto law is not always invidious -an example may be decriminilisation in retrospect, such as the pardoning of past crimes.
The UK regularly, and increasingly utilises the lever of ‘ex post facto’ legislation; often mildly bureaucratically, but in some historic cases quite egregiously in order to nullify and overturn decisions of Court cases found against the Crown. – ‘Not normally’ becomes normal.
.
So, although the ‘Opinion’ is a fascinating read, as ever in Law, it is replete with phrases akin to ‘Not normally’ and its handmaidens (handpersons?) ‘Might & May – nothing unusual there, I’d be surprised at any legal opinion, far less ‘Opinion’ being bereft of such ‘CYA’ phrases.
These things tend to amount to: ‘We doubt it, but give it a try, we’d be interested to see how that pans out for you in Case-Law, and even more interested in being paid to engage in the Case’ –
I believe the modern phrase is: ‘Fuck around and find out’
There is a concept of not having a requirement to put a Policeman on every street corner, but to merely place a Policeman in everyone’s head instead – self policing, self censorship, self servility.
It is the cornerstone of social order – it is also the cornerstone of tyranny. It’s a fine line which few perceive the moment they cross it.
The Hate Crime Bill It is an insidious piece of legislation, and I wonder if a ‘Reasonable person’ could find it anything other than a tool for people who ‘Hate’ to engage in the very Hate Crimes this legislation purports to outlaw – the road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions.
Again, thanks for the work, I shall indeed look to enclose my thanks in an envelope.
*To expand on ex post facto law and the ‘Opinion’s’ mention of Article 7
of the European Convention on Human Rights, there is an interesting nuance:
[…European countries apply the principle of lex mitior (“the milder law”). It provides that, if the law has changed after an offense was committed, the version of the law that applies is the one that is more advantageous for the accused. This means that ex post facto laws apply in European jurisdictions to the extent that they are the milder law]
Wikipedia
Great news but, a word of caution. Nothing is ever certain in a Court of Law.
It is refreshing to see a good number of new ‘faces’ posting today. However, the likes of Baird simply cannot help himself posting the same repetitive, boring, tired, old mince. Mia continues to use 10 words when one would suffice. I often wonder what it is she writes?
On a more serious note, I was golfing with three mates this morning. I don’t know why, but walking along one of the fairways we somehow got talking about sausages. One of my pals stated that he hated the ones with the green bits in them-some kind of herb I think. Whilst I was in agreement with him, I refrained from stating this out loud. It is now with a heavy heart that I find myself reporting him for his blatant act. Some may view this as a bit over the top but I feel that as a proud, patriotic Scot, who abides by the law of the land, it is my duty.
I do sincerely hope that he is not incarcerated for too long.
Delighted to tune in this morning to find you still here and fighting Stu. Well done. Long may Wings continue.!!
Today – The Hate Crime Bill
Tomorrow – Your Papers Please
Honestly though it’s time to vote out the Scottish Politicians
who all voted for this Authoritarian Bill.
Bob Johnston @ 12.24
Point taken Mr Johnston and I think there are many more like you.
I don’t ALWAYS agree with anyone but there are some folk’s ideas that come closer to mine than others. What I consider Stuart Campbell to have is integrity and to back up that integrity he has a broad skillset in research and writing enabled by a logical and incisive brain.
I suspect more people have regard for Mr Campbell for his honesty and integrity than his opinions:-)
Finally it’s the ‘essence’ of a human being that gains respect
Iain mhor @ 12:36 pm
“Scotland, whether we like it or not, is constrained by the UK Pariament’s Sovereignty”
Aye, and Cesaire warns us to beware of the ‘dealers in gobbledygook’ and ‘the watchdogs of colonialism’. For in colonial societies the oppressed group are subject to ‘hateful racism’ and ‘denial of justice’ is the norm.
Moreover, another feature to consider here is the ‘colonial mindset’ of our elites, and where, as we witnessed in the Murray ‘judgement’, and in other ‘cases’ brought against independence campaigners: even “the most absurd prejudices are explained and justified; and, as if by magic, the moon is turned into green cheese” (Cesaire).
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
The process is the punishment.
The HCA has already forced Wings to seek, and presumably pay for, legal advice.
In essence, Wings has already paid a fine–not to the government, perhaps, but still, Stu is poorer in money and time because of the HCA.
And that demonstrates the “chilling effect” that the HCA has on speech.
@Willie 12:33
The election that made HY leader of the SNP was flawed and quite possibly fraudulent.
Several breaches of SNP rules were documented at the time. Ash Regan was considering a legal challenge but then changed her mind. This is all in the public domain.
This doesn’t give a good look either.
My personal view is that our leader should be of unchallengeable political legitimacy. Nothing less should ever be condoned for our country, under any circumstances.
HY should step down immediately and seek re-election to clear this up.
Willie says:
‘The political fight against the SNP has only just begun’. I would qualify that with the word ‘overt’
The covert political fight against the SNP began some time ago.
@Alf Baird 1:06
I’m thinking that neither the Independents for Indy idea, nor Ash Regan’s plebiscitary election idea, are in any way impacted by the HCA.
We’re now one quarter of the way through the WM GE year of 2024. Your colonialism ideas may or may not have some utility in understanding where we are, but I just don’t see how colonialism is holding back any Scot from using the available democratic processes in pursuit of Indy.
And then there’s the obvious idea: the HCA would appear to be widely “disliked” (not hated, obvs), so on Day 1, there is no better time for candidates for election to be climbing on that single issue bandwagon.
They can vow to repeal the HCA on being voted into power.
Surely a no-brainer?
And so it begins;
Just read a report that the Indian Council of Scotland have made an official complaint of a Hate Crime against Humza Yousaf and the devolved administration re their guidance to Police Scotland highlighting white men between 18-30 in a negative manner which could create unfair bias against them.
John Main @ 1:29 pm
“I just don’t see how colonialism is holding back any Scot from using the available democratic processes in pursuit of Indy.”
You perhaps first need to better understand how colonialism ‘functions’ in terms of its exerting control and plunder of territories and peoples.
Aime Cesaire affirmed that “colonization is based on psychology” and noted that there are certain groups of colonized people who suffer from a “dependency complex”. Cesaire suggested such people “are psychologically made for dependence, that they need dependence, that they crave it, demand it” even. They exist in every colonial society reflecting the fact that “colonialism is always a co-operative venture” with native elites and other groups pensioned-off within the system.
legal opinion is all very well, but consider when you have a partisan justice system that really wants to “kick your fuckin head in” – the process is the punishment – and where precisely in that wall of text is the line clearly drawn?
this tranny shite is boring now – fuckem and fuck the keystone cops, put it this way, it takes about 10 of them to arrest anyone; it’s not the “hard team” of percy sillitoe. I reckon their servers should have melted by now, and if the website was running on the amazon cloud, then the Police Scotland budget for the entire year is now in Jeff Bezos backpocket, a man who needs the money for his second divorce.
a palate cleanser for all the grinding obviousness
“expats” – a tale of blindspots and exceptionalism, that it’s alright when we do it. Worth reading all the way. Comments, as ever, revealing.
link to dailymail.co.uk
– if Scots started the graffiti and stickers would it be a hate crime? – is being a FUCKING ENGLISH BASTARD a protected characteristic under our new bottom inspector laws?
Give hate a chance, it’s your intuitive self protection mechanism.
As for the worldwide trans menace, the Ghanaians were showing the way – but are having second thoughts about their new law – who knows what level of bullying was going on.
link to bbc.com
I would just like to say that it is a (white) privilege to open up the site today and see the same cold, hard facts laid out which a captured media on the whole avoid.
More power to your elbow, Sir.
You were true to your word Stu. You asked for a crowd funder to gain legal opinion. And you have shared that Opinion. Thanks.
According to Siobhian Brown – SNP Minister for Victims and Community Safety – claimed on BBC R4 Today this morning that Police Scotland would only prosecute people living in Scotland. You are safe.
This is good news Stu you held your nerve whilst seeking council and it appears to have panned out okay.
Stu, you saved the best for last.
Well done.
“Yousaf previously said “disinformation” has been spread about the Hate Crime Act and there is a “triple lock” to protect free speech.”
What is this “Triple Lock” that Yousaf speaks of, where can it be found? and what does it entail?
“Triple Lock”
When a complaint was logged by the police against Mr Murdo for a tweet even BEFORE this toxic legislation came into force, it is evident such triple lock, or even half a lock for that matter, does not exist.
The kostumed klowns went past my house today with sirens blaring: First time in months.
Must be a misgendering emergency.
Iain mhor said;
“The UK of course operates under the concept of Parliamentary Sovereignty being supreme” and;
“Scotland, whether we like it or not, is constrained by the UK Parliament’s Sovereignty”
Unfortunately Iain, I must take exception to these statements, because they are untrue.
Westminster’s English establishment simply lies about that purely English parliamentary sovereignty, by deliberately over-egging its scope. Whether or not it is still relevant to England, it is certainly irrelevant to Scotland, which formally retains its own sovereignty, since no-one involved in negotiating, agreeing, signing and ratifying the Treaty of Union had any authority sufficient to strip Scotland of its sovereignty, or demote it below England’s.
In addition, nothing in the Treaty or Acts delegated governance authority over Scotland to England, nor to England’s MPs. That is a clear category error, albeit a very common one, having been dishonestly promoted by the usual suspects for years beyond count.
That authority was delegated specifically to the new Union Parliament, and took the form of an actual physical delegation of Scots MPs, who alone wield the sovereign authority of Scotland on its behalf, within the new parliament. No other body outside of Scotland wields that authority. Being Scotland’s sole formal representatives to the Union Parliament, and designated as such by the Treaty, they are not in the least obliged to defer their own decisions to those of England’s MPs, who alone wield the sovereign authority of the English kingdom, and only that kingdom.
Thus, England’s MPs cannot lawfully ‘outvote’ Scotland’s MPs because they own no formal entitlement to overrule the decisions of the representatives of a completely different foreign sovereign kingdom. Long past time our MPs went totally ballistic over it!
I see Alf Baird beat me to it, though he took a different tack from mine. 😀
I must learn to type faster!
It was pouring but I put on my rain jacket and went to the protest outside Holyrood. I suspected it might be a Unionist event. It’s fair enough that Independent supporter and Unionist get together to fight the ‘Hate Crime Bill’ but it all became too Unionist.
When I arrived I spotted a ‘Wings Over Scotland flag’ flying high. I thought this might be good.
Then I spotted ‘Manky Shirt’ filming everything.
The first few speeches were fair enough but nobody said anything new. It was all mostly about Humza with lots of pictures of Humza all over the place.
Slowly it became more and more about the SNP and pro Union. The final straw for me was when ‘Craig Houston’ billed as a ‘You Tube sensation’ started speaking. I listen to him for a few minutes and then decided to leave.
What was missing from all the speeches was that every party in Holyrood voted for the HCB. OK the Tories voted against but if they followed Adam Tomkins which I suspect they did that was only because of one little clause. The one about ‘hate speech’ in your own home.
That is not the main reason for people’s objection to the HCB.
It turned out to be a very damn and miserable protest which had not a lot to do with ‘The Hate Crime Bill’
I am more than happy to attend a protest organised by Unionists but only if they are prepared to accept that their Unionist parties also voted for the Hate Crime Bill.
Now is the Spring of our Dissidents.
On the reasons why laws in the colonial territory differ from those prevailing in the ‘mother country’:
“Every colonial nation carries the seeds of fascist temptation in its bosom. What is fascism if not a regime of oppression for the benefit of a few? The entire administrative and political machinery of a colony has no other goal. The human relationships have arisen from the severest exploitation, founded on inequality and contempt, guaranteed by police authoritarianism. One should not be too surprised by the fact that institutions depending, after all, on a liberal central government can be so different from those in the mother country. This totalitarian aspect which even democratic regimes take on in their colonies is contradictory in appearance only. Being represented among the colonized by colonialists, they can have no other.” (Albert Memmi)
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Thanks! I’m glad that you will continue Wings!
Some people point out….
That Left wing/Progressive political parties throughout the world are clamping down on Freedom of Speech: Labour in Australia; Trudeau in Canada; Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela.
Why should the Left wing, Progressive Scottish government be expected to do any differently?
Remember: Every Left wing party in Holyrood (SNP, Green, Labour, LibDem, Ash Regan of Alba) voted for the HCA. Only the Conservatives and Reform voted against it.
The Scottish Conservatives denounced the HCA at the time (cf. link to heraldscotland.com) and continue to denounce it. They pledge to scrap the law (cf. link to express.co.uk).
@Ruby 3:18pm
Your first hand report of the HCA protest is appreciated. As is your pragmatic approach to a common purpose. Virually everyone, Independence and Unionist supporters alike are agin this HCA. I shared a platform with Unionists during the Named Person shambles. It’s not comfortable but I declared I was an Independence supporter at the start. Super Ordinate goals bring people together even if it is just about a single issue. It’s the Scottish Parliament that are out of touch with public opinion.
Ruby at 3:18 pm.
“-every party in Holyrood voted for the HCB. OK the Tories voted against”
“I am more than happy to attend a protest organised by Unionists but only if they are prepared to accept that their Unionist parties also voted for the Hate Crime Bill.”
You just contradicted yourself. Twice.
Not only are Scots dying more from drug abuse than any other EU nations we are also dying much younger than any other Europeans, its all part of the colonial condition if you ask me.
“People in Scotland now die younger than in any other western European country. People spend more of their lives in ill health. The gap in life expectancy between the poorest and the wealthiest is growing. We have seen great progress in the past but, at the moment, Scotland’s health is getting worse.”
link to archive.is
Campbell Clansman
The question is why did the Tories vote against the bill.
If you read what Douglas Ross says in your Daily Express link
link to archive.is
You will see he’s talking about what people say in their own home.
“The SNP Government has no place criminalising what people say in their own homes.
I’m guessing all the rest is fine for the Tories. I suppose it’s difficult for them to oppose the rest being that is seems The England & Wales Hate Crime bill is pretty similar.
link to player.stv.tv
Listen to what Adam Tomkins has to say. He’s very supportive of the HCB. I’m suggesting his views are representative of the Scottish Tories views.
The Tories are not fooling me on this issue or on the GRRB while they are fully supportive of the GRA 2004.
I think it’s fair to say every party at Holyrood supports the ‘Humza’s Hate Crime Bill’
Shame on Unionists for politicising this very important issue.
An observation from a hospital bed:
Firstly, this may or may not have been covered in a previous comment. Apologies if it has. However, right now it’s hard enough recovering from major surgery two and half weeks ago without having to expend precious and limited energy ploughing through over 130 comments to check.
Secondly; what I have not seen so far – and I except my present limited concentration capacity may have missed it – is explicit reference to one of the key protected characteristics in this context.
The previous posting on the WoS site contained a window outlining the protected characteristics. One of which was “Religion ‘OR’ Belief”
Not ” Religious Belief” but belief as a seperate category to Religion clearly differentiated by use of the term “OR” rather than the term “AND”.
Belief in the immutability of sex and everything that follows on from that is therefore clearly covered under the Hate Crime legislation as a protected characteristic.
Any attempt by those seeking to ‘kick the arse out of’ the situation in the way such chancers have and are already instigating should therefore be reported, along with those behaving in such a way, as a Hate Crime and as Hate Criminals on the grounds of Hatred against the ‘Belief’ protected characteristic rather than sitting back and using it as a defence.
Offence being the most effective defence.
This might require a mixture of subject access requests to Police Scotland and trawling the usual suspect social media accounts for the inevitable bragging about the submission of complaints against anyone who holds a different belief which is a protected characteristic.
Such a proactive approach on this basis by those whose protected characteristic beliefs find those beliefs the subject of such Hatred may well result in lengthy prison sentences for those who perpetuate such criminal offences under the Hate Crime Act. Including those elected legislators, Scottish MSP’s, and those in the wider NGO lobby responsible for this dog’s dinner of an Act.
Thank you for your time and patience.
Dave Hansell
So what was your favourite April Fools Day story and I am not talking about the HCA although I am now more confident that the HCA will last weeks not years. Due to some early research I had done, I found the algorithms direct me to the UK Defence Journal. Their April Fools day wheeze was about a redundant UK army base in Cambuslang being used by elements of the EU Defence force for post Brexit logistics and internal security in Scotland. Perception is the only reality in Humzas HCA world. And that’s how others see us.
@Xaracen 3.12: thanks for restating so clearly the fraudulent parliamentary procedures post-1707 to create what is in effect an incorporating union which ensures an eternal English majority, blatantly flouting (like the decisions of Blair’s pretendy Supreme Court) Scottish sovereignty and the true nature of the provisions of the Treaty of Union.
It’s a pity our supposedly independence-supporting politicians are so ignorant of these basic constitutional facts.
Ruby, your comment that you “guess” the Conservatives favor the HCA, despite being the party that OPPOSED and OPPOSES the HCA, is a prime example of how people see an apple but nonetheless call it a banana.
Your “guess” is contradicted by objective facts.
1) the Conservatives voted 28-1 AGAINST the HCA.
2) the Conservatives denounced the bill at the time
3) the Conservatives pledge to scrap the bill if they ever get the chance.
4) The Conservatives have labeled the HCA “ripe for abuse” and “a shambles from day one.”
I feel sorry for people struggling with cognitive dissonance–the psychological syndrome where people who are confronted with objective facts that contradict their pre-held opinions, don’t change their opinions, but instead refuse to accept the facts.
I identify as Scottish, that a problem now?
This paragraph sums it up!
So well said: “… what might be described in broad terms as “gender ideology” is in fact an ongoing scandal of criminal child abuse on a scale never before seen in Scotland or the UK, as well as a grave and mortal threat to the hard-won rights of women and gay people in particular, and the freedom-of-expression rights of everyone, and that sooner rather than later it will be universally accepted as such.”
Thanks for all you do!
“That Left wing/Progressive political parties throughout the world are clamping down on Freedom of Speech: Labour in Australia; Trudeau in Canada; Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela.”
Advice for anyone that puts Chavez and Maduro in the same “leftist” category as Trudeau; fuck off, you fucking dumbed-down imbecile.
The Spectator’s Stephen Daisley has done a good piece that concisely explains just how we ended up here. He doesn’t mention one name, though, that has been at the heart of every UK policy foul-up in the last 25 years. The Right Honourable (stop sniggering at the back) Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair KG.
Late to the party but delighted with the outcome.
That said Rev Stu please take care!
I was also delighted that JKR has dared Police Scotland to arrest her – being richer than Croesus she has the upper hand.
I know she was agin independence but over the anti science I would back her all the way and find myself incredibly irritated by the young stars she made both wealthy and famous turning on her for stating her opinion.
“Ruby
Ignored
says:
1 April, 2024 at 12:16 pm
If we have a ‘Hate Monster’ shouldn’t we also have a ‘Love Monster’?”
Barry White, no? Or maybe Fat ‘Arry White…
Campbell Clansman
I believe the Tories are fully supportive of the HCA except for one little niggle.
It’s necessary to make an educated guess regarding what politicians say and the above is my guess.
You should listen to Adam Tomkins who is a big “muckety muck” Tory law professor a former MSP who served as convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee when the Hate Crime Bill was enacted.
link to archive.is
Does he sound like a man who is opposed to the Hate Crime Act.
He’s seems happy with the act which he says brings Scotland in line with laws in England.
Ruby:
My objective facts on the Tories opposing the HCA
vs.
Your imagination working overtime via “guesses” and “seems.”
I’m pleased with the contrast.
You really ought to examine your cognitive dissonance syndrome.
@Hatuey says: 1 April, 2024 at 7:27 pm
Scroll back and read it if you’re innarested. I’m not gonna repeat it.
But, for the avoidance of doubt, I’m lovin his post to absolute bits.
Incidentally, and completely irrelevantly to this post and any other post on Wings BTL, I’ve been reading up about Havana Syndrome.
It’s a real thing. Check it out if you think I’m trying for a belated April Fools joke.
Oh aye Derek I did promise to get back to you re ‘The Love Monster’
I’m still working on him. I think he might be called ‘Cupid’ or something like that but there will defo be some Barry White music involved.
We need a law and some police guidance on how to handle ‘The Love Monster’ when one gets these feelings of lurv.
You might know this hing here
When yer feeling lonely, when you feel sexy
he’ll be there feeding aff yer emotions
Getting bigger and bigger, till he’s weighing ye doon
He’ll make ye want tae flirt with somebody
a neighbour, somebody oan the street, oan a night oot, security guy on the door,somebody in the chippy, yer taxi driver, he’ll make you want to flirt, flirt, flirt especially when the person looks different fae you (unless you are same sex attracted)
The Love Monster just wants you to show you are perfect for them
Then before you know it you have committed a love crime.
It disnae make you feel better does it?
Mibbae for a minute but then you just feel worse don’t ye?
Cos the love just hings about like a bad smell.
But it disnae need to be like this.
You are better than that and you know it.
You’ve got all this energy so dae something positive wae it.
The Love Monster disnae just like that – in fact he loves it.
Go oan be good to yersel. Don’t feed ‘The Love Monster’
#DontFeedLove
@Campbell Clansman 8:34pm
“Le Petite Anglaise” provided a service today by enduring the elements to report on the HCA protest. I am old but the last time the Conservatives won an election in Scotland was May 1955 just before I was born. Strange when they have had the intellectual and moral authority in the Scottish Parliament for the last 10 years wrt to leglisation. Perhaps your condescending message is the reason why?
LOVE HURTS 🙂
link to youtube.com
@ Republicofscotland says: 1 April, 2024 at 5:55 pm
That’s an innarestin article and well worth a read. Thanks for posting it.
Of course, once read, it can be seen for the biased and slanted material it is, and your selective quote from it just exaggerates that lack of objectivity.
The NHS in Scotland has been entirely devolved for 24 years now. The decline in life expectancy and the decay in other health metrics stops at the desks of the Scottish Government.
It’s also innarestin that none of the European countries we compare ourselves against have seen fit to emulate our quasi-religious NHS model. It’s almost as if it’s that model, both within Scotland and in rUK, that is the root cause of our healthcare issues.
But as I wrote, belief in the NHS is the national religion and skepticism is tantamount to blasphemy. So I guess we’re fated to see continuing decline in health outcomes.
Still, when just about every other European country has better health outcomes, when some Scots are even going to war-torn 404 for dental treatment, and when Eastern European immigrants bring their own doctors and dentists with them, it must try the faith of even the most ardent believer in the NHS to near breaking point!
One final thought/prediction.
The synthetic opioid invasion will be hitting our streets soon. Once that lands, today’s drug deaths figures will be seen as the “good old days” in comparison. As a nation and as a society, we lack the guts and the capacity to make the difficult and hard decisions that could spare us this entirely avoidable catastrophe.
@Ruby says: 1 April, 2024 at 9:04 pm
LOVE HURTS
Naw.
Ye must be daein something wrang.
@John Main 9:18pm
I hope you are not casting unwarranted aspersions on the Scottish NHS staff. Nicola Sturgeon decided when she was Health Secretary to reduce Doctor and Nurse numbers. A fatal consequential mistake. Compounded by Useless and his recovery plan on one A4 sheet of paper. As we are losing staff hand or foot to Australia perhaps it is time for a public debate on reform. I am still on the waiting list for over 14 months now whilst the Scottish Government spends public money on an analysis of the Trans waiting list. My son is on A and E duty until midnight and he would love your comment so don’t have an accident within 35 miles of Edinburgh tonight. Or I will clype on you. Happy Easter.
Oh nae I’ve been misgendered in French!
BTW I’m only ‘La Petite Anglaise’ when in France and getting accused of burning Joan of Arc.
Nae worries I’ll excuse your French if you excuse mine. 🙂 Deal?
I was going to report back and say the protest was ‘white white white’ which it was but I did spot one ‘dark & dusty’ young man.
He had a very unusual thing which he seemed to be using as it were a mobile/phone camera recording device. I’ve never seen anything like it before but if I find out what it was I’ll report back.
I had initially thought it was the ‘Hate Crime Police’ or maybe MI5.
I saw this and I’m pretty sure this is the young man I saw.
link to twitter.com
I hope ‘dark & dusty’ is considered a compliment. I was struggling to know what word to use to describe this young man. It was a compliment when Frank MacAvity used it describe a young woman he fancied and thought was nice, very nice.
Also I didn’t spot a single police officer at the protest. I guess they were all too busy.
Firstly, I’m sure there was a collective sigh of relief when this article was posted 🙂
I had a look at the WGB blog and the posters BTL said the concerns about this legislation are unfounded yet every section of the press, even the Guardian as per link below, has been criticising it.
link to archive.is
@Ruby 9:55pm
I always get the masculine and feminine in French mixed up. Perhaps I am Trans after all? Please accept my apologies. As I have said before the last thing the security services want is an underground movement with radio silence. But no worries Polis Scotstoun were rolling their rainbow Easter Eggs today that’s why you never saw them. Perhaps the EU Defence Force will be on hand after they have settled into Cambuslang.
@ George Ferguson says: 1 April, 2024 at 9:45 pm
Happy Easter to you too.
I am sure your son would continue to do a good job in any medical system. I’m not casting aspersions on the front-line staff, as I thought was clear enough when I wrote that the buck stops at the desks of the Scottish government.
The politicians and medics who first set up the NHS sincerely believed that demand for it would wither away as the health of the population improved. Obviously that has not happened.
I like the parallel between health care and motor insurance myself. I invite readers to consider how driving behaviour would change if all accidental vehicle damage was free to repair on demand, and nobody was required to take out motor insurance.
But then again, I did work for years alongside a heavy smoker who claimed he saw no need to ever stop as the NHS would fix every health problem smoking would ever give him.
It’s an enormously complex problem, George, and part of it is the tremendous expansion in conditions that have become “medicalised”. That squeezes out people with genuine, treatable health conditions, which are exactly what the NHS was supposed to be for when it was founded.
I’ll continue to give Edinburgh the body swerve. Not that I hate the place or anything like that!
@John Main 10:37pm
Thanks for your Easter greetings. Much appreciated. We have had a good Easter weekend. Regards the Scottish NHS my son laments this complex problem has been put in a box and marked too difficult to handle by the Scottish Government. A Frankenstein creation of their own making. It’s still solvable but the sands of time are running out.
Dear Polisman, I just saw a tweet in which a Mr Dread Lock of Kingston, Jamaica called Mr Chop Suey of Beijing, China a “dirty rotten #####”.
As I saw this tweet in Scotland, I DEMAND that you capture and prosecute Mr Dread Lock for HATE SPEECH.
Also, could everybody reading this please also report this horrible hate crime.
The Blackbelt Barrister on YouTube, worth a watch regarding hate crime bill.
//youtu.be/OJbdxp1T4Qg?si=V2z-d_zgiMJ4KVL0
If I have got the link wring just search for Black Belt Barrister on youtube
The so called left parties are clueless patsies.
How nice and caring of them to bring in laws that stop you saying the obvious, the scientific fact, the objection to the unjust and the corrupt.
Now the right wing will embrace it and develop it further. Very much farther.
To disagree with the government will be a hate crime.
To hold alternative views is to imprison yourself according to the courts.
Perhaps Westminster will free Scots of its own laws to unify its controls.
Never thought I’d be looking up to JK Rolink as the champion of free speech in Scotland.
We must continue to press the Scottish Police on why they haven’t arrested her for standing by her every word.
Welcome to Scotland
Be warned of incarceration for any of the following felonies:-
Slagging
Offending
Insulting
Disparaging
Denigrating
Embarrassing
Snubbing
Rebuffing
Misgendering
Annoying
Displeasing
Peeving
Galling
Irritating
Outraging
Perturbing
Affronting
Unsettling
But have really nice time on tender hooks with your mouth shut.
Haste ye back or front if it’s more politically correct.
“Britain has lost a decade. And it shows. Health, as measured by life expectancy, has stopped improving, and health inequalities are growing wider. Improvement in life expectancy, from the end of the 19th century on, started slowing dramatically in 2011. Now in parts of England, particularly among women in deprived communities and the north, life expectancy has fallen, and the years people spend in poor health might even be increasing—a shocking development. In the UK, as in other countries, we are used to health improving year on year. Bad as health is in England, the damage to the health of people in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has been worse.
Put simply, if health has stopped improving, then society has stopped improving. Evidence, assembled globally, shows that health is a good measure of social and economic progress. When a society is flourishing, health tends to flourish. When a society has large social and economic inequalities, it also has large inequalities in health.1 The health of the population is not just a matter of how well the health service is funded and functions, important as that is, but also the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and inequities in power, money, and resources.”
link to bmj.com
Michael Marmot revisits his original Report, ten years on
Sigh. I grew up with “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. I suppose that wee rhyme may be politically incorrect these days. What kind of pansy society have we become?
All I will say to the politicians supporting this crazy scheme is – You can’t please everyone. No matter what you do or say, someone will be offended. You will end up in knots. Life can be painful at times. That’s just the way it is. Of course, we need to protect vulnerable people (real cases), but the rest of us need to toughen up, as we always have done.
IMO we need our politicians to stand up and be real leaders, not transparent, pansy poseurs or posturing idiots. Time to man up (Ooops!).
Teen-Talk on Gender Identity:
“…..However, gender isn’t about someone’s anatomy, it is about who they know them self to be. There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these.”
So please forgive me, Mr/Mrs/Ms/It/Thing Polis. How do I avoid the crime of ‘misgendering’ if only the owners of the above multiplicity of gender-identities know what the fuck they are?
In the bad old days their were only two sexes: Each had physical, facial, hairstyle, dress signifiers.
Now that we are in much more enlightened times, I am confused.
Does that mean I will go to jail?
Luigi , me too.
Garavelli Princip. yes!( but you will have oodles of company)
Glad to see I am not the only one thinking Yousless’s racist WHITE! diatribe contravenes the Hate Crime Bill.
It is a fitting testimony to the rank incompetence and idiocy of this failed regime that the SNP FM is (by far) the best example of a person who has attempted to stir up hate against a specific race shortly before enacting this dog’s dinner of bill outlawing what he just he did… a ridiculous state of affairs.
Both him and Sarwar are lucky it is not retrospective but I dare say they will be getting reported for it anyway. And so they should.
Incredible really that it was both Sarwar and Yousless who supported this bill and made it happen and yet both made a blatantly racist speech attacking whites… they are rubbing your noses in it. Rules for thee but not for me.
If both of those speeches are not designed to ‘stir-up hate’ against a specific race then I don’t know what is. In a country that is 96% white they are absurd speeches, especially considering Yousless as a non-white is the (unelected) FM and the main opposition is also not white.
Elon Musk called him out as a racist and yet I don’t see any lawsuit for damages from Yousless… funny that.
I would say it is ironic but the whole situation is just nauseating.
Incredible this dangerous pernicious shite has been enacted. Really despising the SNP. They are repulsive.
Lenny.
link to youtube.com
Thanks for the link to the Black Belt Barrister, it’s worthwhile watching and understanding why the HCA is bo***cks.
Societies that obsess about such tertiary concerns as «hate», «gender» and sexuality are usually on the way out.
All this noise signals socio-cultural decline.
Waiting in the wings in such circumstances is something quite fearsome that will not care a jot about hurt and personal sensibilities.
The crushing wheel of human history no less.
Morning all..
The SNP & the Greens will be the first to fall foul & it’ll be all the more delicious when this new law knocks on their door..
*Whites (Dumbza)
*Jeremy Hunts (Black)
*Dregs (Flynn)
*Scum #1 (Flynn)
*Scum #2 (Wings/councillor,forget her name)
*Scum #3 (Tories)
*TERF/CIS (Any Pampers crew)
*Bigots & Transphobes (Harvie)
*Homophobic Racists (Sturgeon)
My oh my…I bet the unionist are busy.
Tick tock for them. They’ll NEVER be in power again. If they are – it’s rigged & the establishment has rewarded them for being good little soldiers in forcing Scotland to bend to a false belief system. Once that happens it’s all downhill from here on in cause other falsehoods will be added…
Just wondering how many Scots have been down to their local Sex Shop to report a Hate Crime.
Maybe Police Scotland might consider adding brothels too. The logic of reporting a potential crime to a sex worker makes so much sense. And how many of us realised that aforesaid sex workers, had training as police officers.
But aside, the complaints will now be rolling in and Political Plod is going to investigate each and every report.
Truly, the country is a joke and the Police nothing better than a bad actor abogating their legal duties pursuing partisan political witch hunts.
Policing is no longer a common good and people now know it. They have no locus in financial fraud, no locus in investigating the crimes that afflicted the public but have all the locus to pursue politically driven Lawfare on selected individuals.
In short they are thugs unresponsive to the needs of ordinary people and thugs beholden to do their masters bidding.
What difference between the old politically sectarian RUC or the apartheid police service of South Africa. The similarities are chilling.
That sadly is what today’s Scotland has become.
Maybe they will next empty the jails to dragoon the inmates into the service of the police. They’d know how to keep the people in line.
And in terms Anecdotally, I hear
We are all going to jail.
So not only can people make vexatious reports that get recorded irrespective, third parties can make them also.
You can just imagine the level of Police scrutiny that will be applied to the accuser’s claims at the local sex shop.
But also incredibly you can also make reports anonymously via crimestoppers (whatever that is).
Then if a potential employer pays for an enhanced police background check all these vexatious reports will appear on it for life.
It is really disgraceful and pernicious this legislation. Total Stasi, report your neighbour, your parents type shit.
Anytime people break-up, fall-out, are seeking revenge, this is a vector for them to cause reputational damage without facing any scrutiny or having to provide a shred of evidence.
It does not have to be the alleged victim reporting it, third parties can also, and they can do it anonymously! Which then effectively goes on your new Police Scotland Stasi-file, forever…
The Scottish government are deliberately enabling all of this via this odious piece of legislation. They are encouraging it. There have been so many warnings about it from so many different groups that you have to assume that they want this, it very much intended.
People’s lives ruined on baseless accusations from anonymous unchecked accusers.
Sounds like the SNP have taken the tactics from the Salmond stitch-up and enacted it nationally.
So I suppose it should not come as a surprise. It is how they roll, rotten to the core.
Freeports will be bad for Scotland in a plethora of ways.
Lets not forget that the SNP’s Kate Forbes worked hand in glove with the Tory governments Michael Gove to force these nasty ports on Scotland
“There is also evidence that freeports can become hubs for criminal activity – including trade in counterfeit goods, drug trafficking, smuggling of untaxed goods or trade-brd money laundering.
In 2020, the EU clamped down on 82 free ports or free zones in 2020 after identifying that their special tariff and duty status had also aided the financing of terrorism and organised crime.”
“What freeports did, more often than not, was displace jobs rather than create new jobs. You had companies who already were operating within the UK, who simply moved their operations to the areas that the freeports were in. So there was no net benefit. No new jobs were being created, but there was a net loss of tax revenue. So that’s a net loss for public services.”
link to archive.is
My wife just asked me what I donated to when looking through the credit card bill – said it was a for a ‘good cause’.
Never thought I’d see the day when I contributed funds to someone supporting Scottish independence – and didn’t want her to know either!
In addition tae Scots fowk aye bein telt we dinnae speak verra guid Englis, for years now Scots have also been told we’re ‘racist, homophobic, transphobic, bigoted, alcoholic, wife beating, misogynistic’, junkies, subsidised, and incapable of governing ourselves, and more.
Such accusations merely reflect what passes for everyday life in a colonial society, and where: “The most absurd accusations are directed toward the colonized” (Memmi).
Here we might remember that the privileges of the colonizer are established “by one means only: debasing the colonized to exalt themselves, denying the title of humanity to the natives, and defining them as simply absences of qualities – animals, not humans. Thus oppression justifies itself through oppression” (Sartre).
And, on the matter of ‘hate’ itself, a reminder that: “oppression means, first of all, the oppressor’s hatred of the oppressed” (Sartre).
And, as we see in its procedures, colonialism “has grafted modern abuse onto ancient injustice, hateful racism onto old inequality” (Cesaire).
So yes, a colonized people inevitably face a great deal of hate, and this HCA merely continues and strengthens what is a further oppressive layer of ‘modern abuse and hateful racism’ directed at them.
link to youtube.com
Don’t forget Anas Sarwar’s
‘White, White, White’ speech.
Just read on Twitter that the police have confirmed that nothing carried out before the 1st April is relevant.
Republicofscotland
> No new jobs were being created, but there was a net loss of tax revenue.
Isn’t that the intended goal – to bleed the Scots a little more? Nice one, Ms. Forbes, I’m glad we found out where your loyalties lie before it really mattered.
First Orange Walk for the season will be interesting.
Re Alf Baird.
In addition tae Scots fowk aye bein telt we dinnae speak verra guid Englis, for years now Scots have also been told we’re ‘racist, homophobic, transphobic, bigoted, alcoholic, wife beating, misogynistic’, junkies, subsidised, and incapable of governing ourselves, and more.
Such accusations merely reflect what passes for everyday life in a colonial society, and where: “The most absurd accusations are directed toward the colonized” (Memmi).
2 April 11:14
======================================================================================================================================
Add playing a PlayStation to that list of Hate crimes committed by us Scots Alf. I am going to buy and play Stellar Blade. That ought to get the Hysterical Yoon Wokists hauling me off to the Death Camps in their Cattle Wagons. Well we have been treated as subhuman for years now. You know, too wee and too poor and too lazy and too thick etc. Nothing has changed in the English/ Brit Press and Media since pre-2014. If anything things have got worse. The One ahem Pro Indy paper????? is a Creepy Wokist Freak Show.
“First Orange Walk for the season will be interesting.”
The way things are going, most of us will be on it.
Wasn’t there an orange revolution somewhere…
It does seem to be that way though doesn’t it. Especially the incapable of governing yourselves bit. Evidently! Don’t forget the ‘munchers of deep fried mars bars’, too.
I was joking about ‘The Love Monster’ but the more I think about it I believe we might need a Monster for all human emotions.
Lust Monster, Greed Monster, Pride Monster, Gluttony Monster, Adultery Monster etc etc etc.
I’ll get back to these later. I’m thinking there should be 10.
As the songs say
#LOVE HURTS
link to youtube.com
It really does. I would like to be able to report a ‘Love Crime’ when a man doesn’t phone after telling me that night before that he loved me.
That really hurts.
Worst of all is the hurt when you discover your husband/wife has committed adultery. So yeah I would like to report ‘Adultery Love Crimes’
Often all your friends know of his/her adultery but don’t want to say anything or are afraid. It would be good if you could report these ‘Adultery Love Crimes’ anonymously to the police who would then investigate.
link to archive.is
SNP rocked by discovery of intimate texts revealing two politicians’ torrid lockdown affair
The heartbroken husband also revealed the betrayal was made even worse after he was warned he could not make any details public.
He told the Mail he was left feeling afraid for his own safety and for the safety of his family if he opened up about the affair.
The man, who has asked not to be named, told the Mail: ‘The affair wrecked my marriage. I’ve thought long and hard about going public about this, but I feel I can’t.
‘I am fearful about the repercussions if I did, and I have to protect my family at all costs. That’s the most important thing for me.
I don’t suppose Sarwar of Yousaf will make another racist ‘white white white’ speech but not too sure in the case of Humza if adultery will be out of the question.
I’m wondering if adultery is covered by the Humza’s Hate Crime Bill if not it should be.
When incapable politicians (way out of their depth), with no real experience of life outside student politics are left running the show, this is the kind of mess you end up with, folks. Pie in the sky nonsense.
Scary stuff.
true story, from a pal who worked in the council, hamilton area :
housing estate had bad graffiti on massive wall, looked awful, people asked for repairs; council repairs just “go into the system”, where they are “prioritised”. Nothing happened for months, then maybe it was pure luck, or maybe a local had a brainwave. Someone went out and painted
FUCK THE HUNS UP THE RA
on it. Next day the phones were buzzing about “SECTARIAN vandalism and graffiti” – and within a day, a single day, it all got cleaned.
Lateral thinking.
the writing is on the wall for Humza, on some wall anyway; someone done a bad racism, and Humza plays the racialisticism-card with aplomb. Why won’t they let him be – what could this man have done if all the racists hadn’t held him back?
Sources tell me the message was written by SHIA muslims who described SUNNIS as “heretics” and “SHIA is the best ISLAM, the only ISLAM”. Both sides claiming islamophobia.
I like the SHIA better than SUNNI – all the jihadists are sunnis.
Scotland should become a shia-only zone.
Or maybe someone should check Humza’s hands for paint stains – is that an aerosol I see, in the garage, under a tarp? In trouble, play the victim, never mind the self inflicted flak from this bad law; all the defenders of it seem to think “itsawright … ” because of the “reasonable person” criterion which is highly subjective; so who is a reasonable person? Maggie Chapman, Harvie, the man in a dress with pink hair who keeps cutting himself and hangs around the playpark?? Oddly, Tompkins makes this argument, for unclear reasons, but fuck him, he is and always was a fucking tory weasel, and probably just likes to stir it.
Sally’s letter to the Chief Constable
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
” Ms. Forbes, I’m glad we found out where your loyalties lie before it really mattered.”
Stuart Mackay.
Forbes said at the SNP leadership hustings (as did Yousaf) that we MUST ask Westminster for an S30, I’m pretty sure Forbes was only in the race to dilute the vote, a vote overseen by the enemy of Scottish independence GCHQ. Forbes was elated when Yousaf “won” the leadership contest as the photo of them awaiting the result showed.
Forbes is also a member of (BAP) the British American Project that was set up in the 1980’s after Michael Foot a non Atlanticist became the Labour party leader.
“When the CIA was concerned about the power of the Labor left and its ‘anti-American’ views, the BAP sought to influence British progressives to adopt a pro-American political stance.”
Now most Westminster MPs and Holyrood MSPs are pro-American (Atlanticists) which puts (US) interests at the heart of every major decision they make.
“BAP was the “brainchild” of US President Ronald Reagan and “the political equivalent of the Freemasons” and that “even its supporters joke that it’s funded by the CIA”.
Investigative journalist Paul Foot, writing in Private Eye, compared the BAP to “CIA front organisations” set up in the 1960s “to promote ‘sensible’ elements in British Labor”.
50 members are added every year, half of whom are from the UK and US, who are paid expenses to be delegates at the BAP’s annual conference. “
What you now have in Scotland is, or is certainly capable of being, a blasphemy law.
Given the arguably distracting ‘publicity’ surrounding this Act (White guy in front of fractured glass pane, ludicrous hate monster graphic etc) much attention will be focused on such people as JK Rowling and alleged ‘far right’ groups. This distraction technique conceals from the public the real intent of the legislation which is that it shall be used in one direction only.
I would suggest that some people in the Scottish political class are using this legal dog’s dinner to burnish their reputations within their own ‘communities’/religions, perhaps with an eye on a welcoming overseas bolt-hole and possible lucrative future side-hustle, should the necessity arise.
This was a superb article, and getting and publishing a legal opinion is good strategy. Even better is that you are backing that up with a warning that you will fight attempts to silence you through lawfare, and that you have the resources to do so.
Like JK Rowling you are publicly daring the bullies to take you on. Nothing frightens a bully so much as being stood up to. My guess is they will instead pick on people weaker than you.
How much effect will this law have? It is going to have to go through the courts to find out. The legal opinion is interesting but we can no longer assume judges in Scotland make reasonable judgements. Look at the juryless trials issue that is being forced through.
The sooner someone can be charged then supported through the court case, the better. Even then, the establishment holds a lot of the cards and could just withdraw to await a weaker opponent. Look at the Marion Millar case: when it became clear COPFS and Police would be put under scrutiny, they ‘stayed’ charges, but they can still target anyone at any time.
dasBlimp @ 11:50 am
“It does seem to be that way though doesn’t it.”
Perhaps to the more assimilated, colonized mind?
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Policing Scotland is done with the consent of the people. If that consent is withdrawn then Police Scotland is just another gang. The biggest gang in town.
Mark Beggan.
Make no mistake the Scottish Stasi aka Police Scotland is a ruthless gang that doesn’t give a toss about public consent.
How do you think Salmond ended up in the dock twenty-two officers spent four years looking for dirt on Salmond, who do you think Murrell and Ruddick were liaising with on the set up?
Now the English government and the Scottish one wants to somehow put a a Scottish cop at the head of INTERPOL.
“One candidate was directly involved in an illegal spying operation to plant electronic surveillance tools on journalists and others digital devices, and was considered to have been part of a move by corruption unit officers to destroy records of investigations including fake passports, false identities and alleged serious criminality.
A second candidate was alleged to have given false evidence to an independent investigation on operational Policing issues, submitted false evidence to a Scottish Parliament Committee and in relation to their job received secret cash payments for employment related issues to help the officer avoid paying tax.
A third candidate was previously accused of multiple allegations of serious sexual assault.
Additional information provided in relation to Scottish Policing candidates also revealed a history of drunken misconduct, complaints from fellow officers of threatening behaviour, several accusations of assault, and a newly discovered file of complaints and poor professional conduct while in an earlier career.”
link to petercherbi.blogspot.com
Geheime Staatspolizei!
Semper vigilo fortis paratus et fidelis.
Got to say the quality of discussion is of an impressive level.
“referring to trans ally Billy Bragg as a “big-nosed misogynist wanker”
Seems more like a statement of fact rather than an opinion.
Is there a simple copy and paste disclaimer you can print after making any point you think might be weaponised by those anti-free speech idiots? So we can end each sentence with (of course… see reference A, section B, par N, which details that what I say is in no way to be taken as offenseive…blah, blah, blah.
With regard to me repeatedly commenting that this is not restricted to Scotland but is deliberately aimed at white, Western nations, here is who is really in charge of Canada and their aims.
link to archive.ph
The laws, imo, are being imposed to shut down any pushback against massive immigration and the simultaneous queering of the majority white children. Women who have been keeping a close eye on this across the West will have seen the attacks on white women within the feminist movements, if not do a search for attacks on white women within the feminism.
As already mentioned above these laws are deliberately one way. People such as Humza Yousaf did not get where they are via merit, there is a controlling hand behind their rise and that hand has a history of using minority groups as a front.
Michael Foran has a thread on the subject.
link to threadreaderapp.com
Mark Beggan.
I forgot to add this one on the Scottish Stasi aka Police Scotland.
“POLICE SCOTLAND: Non Disclosure Agreements, whistle-blower witch-hunts, £Ms paid to silence victims, institutionally discriminatory & corrupt – The Scottish Govt Policing PR machine & lawyer-led Scottish National Police service that simply ran out of lies.”
link to petercherbi.blogspot.com
On March 22, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia issued a joint statement on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels that were “ready to recognize Palestine” as soon as the conditions for the setting up of a state were met.
The Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said he would like to recognise a Palestinian state by July this year.
Sanchez added.
“Believed there would soon be a “critical mass” within the European Union to push several member states to take the same stance.”
“Michael Foran
@michaelpforan
Some academic lawyers are very frustrated that some people are misunderstanding the letter of the law in the Hate Crime Act, eg believing that misgendering is now a crime, but who are not engaging with where that misinformation is coming from: the Scottish government & Police.”
“With regard to me repeatedly commenting that this is not restricted to Scotland but is deliberately aimed at white, Western nations, here is who is really in charge of Canada and their aims.”
The unfolding disaster in Ireland.
link to thejournal.ie
In the UK (a minister in the Blair government)
link to migrationmuseum.org
Open borders for every country but one. Mixing or races (especially white Christian) except one (OT and Talmud).
Maurice Samuels wrote in the 1920’s “We Jews, we, the destroyers, will remain the destroyers for ever. Nothing that you will do will meet our needs and demands.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
A recent head of the Sephardic Jews explained to his audience that non Jews are like pack animals only there to serve Jews.
link to jewishjournal.com
This did not discomfort Israel to any great degree as 800, 000 turned out for his funeral a few years later.
link to jpost.com
Black belt barrister on the case again today, I think whilst it’s unlikely they will go after the like of jkr , I think they will go after a few “Marion Millers” to keep the fear up. We need to be in crowdfunding mode so that if anybody is to be made a case off for stating biological science that they have legal representation.
youtu.be/vTFK_-i7e8Q?si=KfifyGiBxO6PZYKQ
I understand that Humza already has a “hate crime” complaint lodged against him.
I never knew Boney M were Zionists. By the rivers of Babylon will probably get banned under Humza Law.
Well the Scottish Stasi aka Police Scotland via the COPFS said they WON’T arrest JK Rowling for comments on social media. Rowling has hinted that she’ll fund the cases of any woman in Scotland who find themselves on the end of the nefarious Hate Crime Laws.
Meanwhile Ally McCoist the 100% Britnat has said that he WILL be committing a hate crime along with 50 thousand others at Sunday’s Old Firm game.
This Hate Crime Law is becoming more farcical by the second.
Incidentally according to news reports the most reports of a hate crime were Humza Yousaf’s White Rant.
Sam @ 5.34pm & 4.12pm
Ambiguity is an essential part of this. It is necessary that people should self-censor simply because of the deliberate uncertainty and lack of clarity in this legislation. They would prefer that there would not be cases actually coming to court since the inherent incoherence would be challenged. It is possible to control people very effectively when they don’t altogether understand the law and how they could transgress it.
Most people would not really know where the red lines are, so would silence themselves. ( Reminds me of the old adage – Help the police: stay at home and keep crime off the streets.) Confusion is part of the process. Very Kefkaesque. Keep the population uncertain of where their rights are. If you don’t understand the charge, how can you defend yourself?
At the moment, this legislation looks protean and wide open to interpretation according to how the police choose to use it. Well done to JK Rowling to challenge them on behalf of all women. She knew they would not accept her challenge.
3000 HCA complaints in the first 36 hours. Optimistically on a one hour per complaint basis. That’s around 375 Police Officer days lost. Totally unsustainable situation.
No charges against JKR apparently although they did receive several complaints.
The truth cannot be hate
Simples
Jonathon Pie on the case now
youtu.be/28eApJT8hDE?si=5_aiwKesGvLXCDcN
@JGedd
I agree.
The authoritarianism and corruption reminds me of The Labour Files available online. There, though, I think the scale of corruption was mighty.
The Labour Files is the name given to a massive leak of data to Al Jazeera journalists from within the Labour Party. The journalists used the data to make a series of investigative programmes, available online.
The programmes show, with strong evidence, that Corbyn was disabled and pulled down as Leader by senior party members, starting as soon as he was elected. Some leaders of constituency members in constituencies favourable to Corbyn were expelled as party members on trumped up charges.
Jewish party members (some with Holocaust connections) who were critical of the Israeli state suffered the same fate. Two Jewish women were expelled based on an untruth that they were anti-semitic. The alleged anti-semitic remark was never made as a recording of the meeting (previously agreed) shows.
The Labour Files show that it was the senior party members hostile to Corbyn who failed to address anti-semitic complaints within the party with diligence and speed. The data also shows that as soon as Corbyn was able to replace those handling complaints with his own staff, the speed and effectiveness of dealing with anti-semitic complaints increased dramatically.
The Labour Files also show that at the time some of the people opposing Corbyn were racist and Islamophobic towards party members.
It is against this context of Labour authoritarianism and corruption that the SNP motion criticising the behaviour of the Israeli state towards Palestinian people should be seen. Many UK political parties are corrupt to degrees. The cynicism, malice and depth of corruption exposed by Al Jazeera in Labour is striking.
Ash Denham as she was known back then did vote for the HC Bill, maybe she’s trying to make amends.
“THE Hate Crime Act should be repealed, Alba have said, as they launched a petition to see the new legislation binned.
The party’s MSP Ash Regan spoke out against new hate crime laws, which came into effect in Scotland on April 1 and for which she previously voted, amid controversy around how they will be implemented.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has claimed that training provided to officers expected to police the act has not been sufficient, while the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) has raised fears about the legislation being weaponised for political purposes.
Alba have also argued that the new laws could “be weaponised” against people with “gender critical beliefs”.
The party’s only MSP, SNP defector Regan, said she had reversed her previous position and now sided with those who want the Hate Crime Act repealed.
In an article for The Times, she wrote: “A chilling effect occurs when the fear of police action stops a person from freely expressing a view. It’s ‘cancel culture’ before you even dare speak or write.
“The reality, three years on, is that Scotland, our police and Parliament have been embarrassed, left to traverse a self-destructive pathway. The root cause of this, and other legislative failures, is the erosion of good governance to safeguard our legislative processes.
“I must now side with those who call for repeal. The chilling effect has begun, and the original vision of the bill is lost.”
Sign the petition to repeal the Hate Crime Laws.
link to albaparty.org
Congratulations on a job well done, Your Reverence. This is the best news out of Scotland that I’ve heard in many a long year.
I see the Tories have decided that there should be a border poll within the year. Don’t think that will please many in Ireland, except Sinn Fein and supporters who are likely to get a big boost.
Tories promising to save money or something more devious?
From another site
alanc51
2nd Apr 2024 at 5:55 am
I find it very strange that somebody from another country, with a different legal system to Scotland, can be put in charge of police Scotland. Was there no Scottish policeman/woman up to the job?
I suspect the answer is simple enough.
Why would any career Scottish police person risk it all by taking on what is quite obviously a deadly poisoned chalice?
ROS: “The [Alba] Party’s MSP Ash Regan spoke out against new hate crime laws, which came into effect in Scotland on April 1 and for which she previously voted, amid controversy around how they will be implemented. …
The party’s only MSP, SNP defector Regan, said she had reversed her previous position and now sided with those who want the Hate Crime Act repealed.”
Obviously, Alba politicians aspire to be as two-faced as the SNP.
That about-face reminds me of a line by comedian Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
Andrew scott says:
2 April, 2024 at 7:18 pm
The truth cannot be hate
Simples
Andrew,
I think that even if it is TRUE, if you express it in such a way as they can prove you INTENDED to offend, insult or piss off someone else or a group of them, I think you might have committed a crime under this Act.
Lenny , thanks for reminding me of Jonathon Pie – bloody marvellous!
On the Groucho Marx
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Campbell Clansman says:
2 April, 2024 at 9:06 pm
ROS: “The [Alba] Party’s MSP Ash Regan spoke out against new hate crime laws, which came into effect in Scotland on April 1 and for which she previously voted, amid controversy around how they will be implemented. …
The party’s only MSP, SNP defector Regan, said she had reversed her previous position and now sided with those who want the Hate Crime Act repealed.”
Obviously, Alba politicians aspire to be as two-faced as the SNP.
………………
The Fifty Pence Politicians, two faced, and seven sided.
That about-face reminds me of a line by comedian Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
Hey Campbell Clansman.
Seeing as you have rocked up btl recently bigging up all things Conservative. Any chance you can try to put a positive spin and satisfactory explanation on why we should be happy with the overall state of the UK seeing as your clearly favoured party have monumentally screwed so many aspects of our society to the point it is circling the pan like a jobbie making its way to the sea.
Scotland is now officially a Police State.
“Obviously, Alba politicians aspire to be as two-faced as the SNP”
I strongly disagree.
Here is the full content of the email:
—–
“A chilling effect occurs when the fear of police action stops a person from freely expressing a view.
It’s “cancel culture” before you even dare speak or write.
We are witnessing comedians, social commentators, and the public eviscerating the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act across international, domestic and social media.
During discussions on the bill with Humza Yousaf I raised two core concerns: protection of vocal disagreement without fear of recrimination, and misogyny.
Colleagues assured me that the law would have clarity of intent built into the accompanying guidance, setting the bar for investigation and prosecution clearly above legally protected freedom of expression.
I was asked for my view on whether we should include sex as a characteristic, to protect women from misogyny, and I said yes. I was told that in feedback from women’s rights organisations, they sought a separate offence in misogyny legislation that could assist in dealing with the specific considerations in domestic abuse law.
After the act was passed, the follow-up meeting to discuss the guidance was a singular event that shaped my future political career. At that meeting ministers decided that they would not add clarifying real-world scenarios involving gender-critical feminists as there was nothing to gain, and it would upset the transgender lobby.
Upon my return to Holyrood, after my re-election to the Scottish parliament in May 2021, the guidance still needed to be created.
From speaking widely to women’s groups who had made significant contributions to our committee, I knew that my government had broken promises to consult them regarding clear guidance and additional protections for women in the proposed Misogyny Bill.
Indeed, many had also wanted sex to be included in this bill, as I had first assumed, but my boss at the time had convinced me that my view wasn’t representative. The whole situation seemed bizarre.
As I tried to make sense of it, I questioned whether this was incompetence in the legislative process or whether my party leadership had deliberately misled me and others to enable the bill to pass through parliament seamlessly.
In 2021 the bill promised a pathway to additional protections to make our open and welcoming Scotland safer for all.
The reality, three years on, is that Scotland, our police and parliament have been embarrassed, left to traverse a self-destructive pathway. The root cause of this, and other legislative failures, is the erosion of good governance to safeguard our legislative processes.
I must now side with those who call for repeal. The chilling effect has begun, and the original vision of the bill is lost.
Please join with me in calling for this Act to be repealed by signing our petition and sharing it with your friends, colleagues and on your social media.
Yours for ALBA,
Ash Regan MSP
Holyrood Leader, ALBA Party”
—-
From what I can read above, Ms Regan was misled. It is up to you to decide if the misleading was deliberate.
As far as I am concerned, giving that the misleading came from Sturgeon, which misled us on pretty much everything else, I am convinced the misleading was very much by design.
If anybody else wishes to sign the petition, they can copy and paste in their browser the following URL:
link to albaparty.org
If police are going to take it upon themselves not to chase retrospective claims against Useless, or not to follow up clear provocation from JK, will lawyers be able to sue them for loss of income?
This is the Hate Crime Bill and the Scottish Old Bill in action-
link to x.com
Perfect fit!
Mia writes “Ms Regan [claims she] was misled [when she voted for the HCA].”
“I was misled” is the standard excuse given by politicians when they flip flop on an issue.
Besides, if the none-too-bright Ms. Sturgeon can so easily “mislead” Ash Regan, and Regan didn’t catch on for three years, what does that say about Regan’s intelligence?
I know some true believers want to believe that Alba politicians are pure, just like they once believed SNP politicians had their best interests at heart. Such blind faith is heart-warming.
Seems the number of complaints is nearly 4000 already.
More work for lawyers ? More polis overtime ?
Charges for wasting police time in the offing ?
Mia @ 9:37 pm
“my future political career”
The most urgent matter of independence and liberation of the Scottish people aye seems to be thwarted by individuals looking to build political careers for themselves.
Folks make decisions on the information available at the time, when this information has been supplied by colleagues and civil servants as ipso facto to reject the information would imply cowardice.
However facts are facts, deceit, fraud and corruption are there for any anyone with an ounce of common sense to see and be digusted especially by betrayal by their parliamentary representatives who were elected to fight for the rights of the constituents.
The tipping point has now more than ever come for right minded Scots and Scotland to firmly reject the toxic influence emanating from the City of London.
Given honest information folk will change their opinions that is normal, the day of dogma is dead, long live the Internet !
The entry of a hero/heroine on the public scene goes unnoticed,but their re-entry always has an eager press,Napoleon coming back from Elba,Robert the Bruce’s rustications among the spiders,both drew heavy coverage.
There are always questions to answer though,are the hero’s / heroine’s legs sound ? spirit good ? have they shed the lard of sloth acquired during their “time out” ?.
All being well, they will have our support, political “careerists” have never had it easy though,from Margot MacDonald even Winnie Ewing all at times had it tough,very tough.
Politics has changed,I think we can all agree on this, however some things never change, we all understand the real problems are economic in nature and any “true” leaders focus should be to attain power,in order to deal with these major issues.
The designers of artificial constructs do not want the focus to be on the economics, they litter the road with other issues,simply to catch out the unalert public/politicians/commentators.
Meanwhile the one eyed speculator suddenly re-emerges,taking a “time out” from moistening the milk, to announce he has a plan and we must all lean even further to the right from the perpindicular,he has another random box of pills to fire into Scotlands bowels with a vague chance hitting some disease unknown to him,to reduce politics to a very big bankroll in a very small crap game.
Thats not what we are looking for,politicians either in Alba or ISP or Independent candidates in Scotland need to reflect on the then and the now, they need to enhance our human spirit,inspire us,provoke us,even save us.
They need not be afraid to fuck up,we all have, so don’t be so hard on yourselves or us, when you are creating a masterpiece fuck ups are allowed, just be 100 % true to yourself and that takes courage,be more like Margot or Winnie and you will do ok.
How do reach the young people, well stop bitching for one and tell better stories thats how, if a 60 year old Japanese Game Designer Hideo Kojima can sell non violent games to young people through storytelling, so can you.
Na noo Na noo
.
“and Regan didn’t catch on for three years”
What do you mean she didn’t catch on for three years?
Where is Ms Regan now? Is she still in the SNP or did she move on?
Goodness, how many decades it is taking Scotland’s labour MPs and MSPs to catch on with the fact that labour is neither a socialist party nor has ever had Scotland’s interests at heart?
How many Scotland labour MSPs and MPs have had the gumption to defect from Labour since the tory, Thatcher enthusiast and pro-Gaza genocide Starmer took over?
What does that say about their intelligence, never mind courage and principles?
“The most urgent matter of independence and liberation of the Scottish people aye seems to be thwarted by individuals looking to build political careers for themselves”
Absolutely. But given the circumstances and the risk, I would not think that exiting the SNP to join Alba as the only party MSP would be the move to be made by somebody simply seeking to build a political career for themselves. If that was the case, we should see a torrent of career opportunists moving from the SNP, which is sinking and fast, to Alba. Yet, we did not see that, even from people seriously wronged by the SNP leadership, like Mr Ewing, Ms Ferrier or Ms Cherry.
At least this lady had the guts to do something about it.
@ ROS 8.11pm You said
Sign the petition to repeal the Hate Crime Laws.
Spear of Annandale on YFS says
Spear o’ Annandale
2nd Apr 2024 at 7:38 pm
I tried to sign the petition, filled in the boxes until it came to entering “Country”.?I searched in vain for Scotland but the only option provided that I had to enter was “United Kingdom”,.?
Sorry to say that no matter how strongly I support the petition it was left uncompleted.
I said
And this is exactly why we are still in this accursed union SOA, when a politician who is a supposed independence supporter and a representative of a supposed independence party arranges a petition where the choice of country lists united kingdom as a restrictive choice for signatories in Scotland, does said politician or political party NOT realise that the united kingdom is NOT a country , it is a construct of various countries and is insulting to the indigenous peoples of those countries
These ongoing mistakes??? makes me even more reluctant to believe that these people are seriously committed to independence irrespective of what it will take , these politicians are using the terminology used and favoured by unionists across the board to undermine and ridicule our fight for independence , Ash Regan actually VOTED FOR the reviled HCB so where now is her credibility in trying to get it repealed, IMO this is just a publicity stunt to excuse her lack of thought in interpreting the threat this reviled bill brought to her sisters AND freedom of speech
What makes it even more disturbing is when people who were eager to sign the petition realise that the option of country is restricted to the uk and won’t now sign it , obviously that will affect the numbers willing to sign which will give humza and the other unionists who voted FOR the bill immense satisfaction
Twathater @3:56am
What are the odds they’re doing it deliberately?
One irony inherent in the HCPO act appears to be that hate is considered an aggravating factor for purposes of judgement when, under Scots law, it ought to be a mitigating factor on grounds of diminished responsibility.
Another, as the Murdo Frazer incident showed, is that HCPO appears to be, of itself, an incitement to hate (Murdo’s accuser being (apparently) insufficiently bothered about the inability to identify themselves or the person they were outraged for as a cat or non binary to put the police on the hate incident register too)
Clearly its very existence represents an attempt to anglify Scots law by statute (an argument fortified by the lack of intellectual* or public demand for same) which renders the entire performance a fundamental breach of union.. by Holyrood
🙂 🙂
Somebody wearing a pink shirt with an orange tie always makes me feel uneasy,add in a peruke and Ive positively got the boak.
They sold them a pup, claiming it was a defence of liberties rather than a violation of free speech, or womens rights etc….
The failure is with the people who realised this and lost the argument,that failed to persuade and thats a collective failure,however the ones that supported it,now might have buyers remorse.
By allowing them this, we can restore a little bit of faith in humanity, display some empathy or solidarity, if not we allow the vandals to win,you’re choice,sign or do not sign, at this point we All know where we stand.
It’s very quiet here on Wings!
Afraid of the big bad Hate Monster?
link to archive.is
Racist graffiti aimed at Humza Yousaf appears in Broughty Ferry near first minister’s home
Any thoughts on this?
I struggled to make out what the graffiti said.
I thought it was maybe something to do with football.
I read FK ISLA FA I then thought it might be something to do with Isla Bryson.
Whoever wrote it has a great deal of resentment towards Humza.
I don’t think that it’s uncommon amongst the ‘White, White, White’ community in Scotland to feel resentment towards Humza.
(Some have suggested it may have been written by a supporter of Humza as justification for his Hate crime Bill.)
‘Fraid I signed the petition to repeal the Act on Change.org as I just didn’t feel inclined to give support to an MSP who voted to pass it.
Any faith I ever had in professional, career politicians is now long gone. Independents for indy, local folk representing local folk are about all that has any appeal now.
And they’d better be making their position on safe places for biological women and children clear to secure my vote.
Ruby @ 9.08am
(Some have suggested it may have been written by a supporter of Humza as justification for his Hate crime Bill.)
That would unfortunately, not surprise me.
Reading some of the gleeful attacks on Ash Regan by , I assume , absolute paragons of virtue and impeccable judgement – who have never in their puffs been deceived by anyone , in any context – is to be awed by the knowledge that such enlightened creatures walk amongst us . We are not worthy , truly .
If someone asks you to lend them £20 and assures you they’ll pay it back ” on Friday ” , that ” Friday ” comes , no £20 is forthcoming , neither is it on the following Friday , or any other day ; you have been misled .
Similarly , if yr boss at work obliges you – eg by implied accusation of not being a ” team player ” , subtle threat or emotional blackmail , to agree to something , some course of action , also assuring you any concerns you have are either groundless or will be addressed ” later ” : ” later ” arrives and it’s obvious your concerns were/are neither groundless nor have they been addressed , ergo … you have been misled .
We can argue whether Ash – or any other MSP – should have signed-up to such a gratuitous piece of Legislation – the clear intent of which has nothing to do with ” protection ” and everything to do with intimidation – IN ANY FORM . Well , in actuality, there’s no such argument , the answer is an unequivocal ” NO ” .
Who has never made a mistake in their lives ?
Gotta laugh at some supposed ” clansman ” staggering around on his Teletubbyland fantasy moral high ground whilst singing the praises of the Tory Party , that , however it may have voted on this particular issue , is the Party that has presided over and instigated the most insidious assaults on our right to free assembly/peaceful protest ever , have given the Security Services virtually unlimited powers to spy , coerce , deceive , threaten and even kill with total immunity from prosecution and are zealous advocates of ” Online Protection Measures ” ..eg .. the continuing attempt to close down any/every source of ” alternative ” information – what used to be known as Truth .
The Tory Party is no friend of Free Speech/Thought .
Neither are Labour ; LibDems ; SNP ; Greens . They are – literally – all the same on this issue . Ditto the E.U and it’s constituent members .
All united in their absolute contempt for the people they are supposed to serve , and determined to remove as much agency from * their * people as possible , in order to impose even more lunatic policies on them .
The Tories are simply feeding out the rope the SNP are determined to hang themselves with – why would they intervene in this process ? The total collapse of that Party ( SNP ) is what they want .
Once this has occurred , once the former ” Party of Independence ” has disintegrated under the pressure of public scorn , ridicule , disgust & internal sabotage , the rope will be withdrawn and placed around the neck of any nascent putative Independence-advocating Party .
Watch out , ALBA , what you’re mistakenly perceiving as lengths of possibly useful rope are actually venomous snakes , coiled and primed to attack .
Mia @ 1:58 am
“I would not think that exiting the SNP to join Alba as the only party MSP would be the move to be made by somebody simply seeking to build a political career for themselves.”
You may think that, however the clue seems to be in her own words, viz: “..that shaped my future political career”.
In any event, the main ‘weakness’ of National Party politicians remains their lack of understanding of the ‘colonial condition’, which explains their being easily diverted onto multiple policy matters about this and that; all of which rather inhibits their ability to inform the people about the real rationale and meaning of independence, never mind finding the only remedy – liberation. This might help:
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
It looks like Scotland is simply catching up with the rest of the UK by introducing the HCA…
link to spiked-online.com
Yesterday, just before midday, I tweeted a full copy of Sally Hughes’s letters to Police Scotland’s Chief Constable (as published on Iain Lawson’s blog).
In 22 hours it’s had almost a quarter of a million views.
My twitter account isn’t big, only 6.5k followers, so that gives some indication of how much interest there is in this topic.
Hard to see how Humza can survive this – JK Rowling’s action has confirmed that stating simple biological fact doesn’t constitute an offence under the Act and Police Scotland declining to pursue Humza for his ‘white’ rant confirms that action can’t be retrospective.
Doesn’t mean we can be complacent but if Police Scotland now move against anyone and the ‘incident’ isn’t a cut-and-dried threat of violence or malicious doxxing etc then they’ll have a Poll-tax-style insurrection on their hands. Awareness of the issues surrounding the Act are higher than ever before and people are simply not tolerating this shit any longer.
link to twitter.com
I can understand where Ash Regan is coming from.
Often people make a decision about something when they don’t have all the facts.
It happens all the time.
It’s often difficult and time consuming to obtain all the facts.
Denial of freedom of speech makes it even more difficult to get all the facts.
With regards to the Tories in Scotland voting against Humza’s HCB and the Nicola’s GRRB I don’t think that is where we should be looking when making a decisions about the Tories.
(They only voted against it because of one little niggle. ie hate crime in your own home)
Labour & the LibDems decision on these matters is exactly what their UK party would do. The Tories on the other hand are being sneaky because they are not voting the way their UK Party would.
I’m looking at Murdo Fraser’s complaint about ‘non-crime hate incidents’ and wondering if it hadn’t been for Harry Miller if things in England wouldn’t be exactly the same.
I’m basing my opinion of Tories in Scotland on what UK Tories do.
I have to call them UK Tories because there is no equivalent in England to Tories in Scotland.
The bill in England also cover Wales. it’s called
‘Hate crime, England and Wales, 2022 to 2023 second edition’
That makes it even more complicated for me because I thought Wales had a devolved parliament.
The bill in England with regards to gender recognition is called the GRA 2004. That bill supported by the Tories allows for men to change sex and supports the idea that ‘Transwomen are women’
I believe at the moment the GRA 2004 covers the whole of the UK.
It’s hard work getting all the facts.
One thing I am sure of is if Labour win the GE/Holyrood election then we will have self-id & an Hate Crime Bill similar to Humza’s here in Scotland.
Not too sure if having Humza’s Hate Crime bill repealed is worth the bother.
Keep in mind Sarwar is also a racist who made the same ‘White, White, White’ speech as Humza and is also supportive of the idea that ‘transwomen are women’
Re signing the petition, as I said on the ALBA FB page,
“Put Scotland on the country list and I will gladly sign it and share. Hint, which you should really not need, United Kingdom is NOT a country!”
Will they change it?
It was part of the rest of the UK that thought the SNP and Greens had a brilliant idea to stymie the Scottish freedom of Speech,
The Monarch of the UK with its Sovereignty had to gave it Royal Assent before it could be passed as a “final bill piece of Scottish legislation in the devolved government”
It would not have be here in Scotland without it being ROYAL ASSENT.
Rishi Sunak supports the idea that ‘transwomen are women’ he doesn’t care about women’s rights if he did he would repeal the GRA 2004.
The GRA 2004 is not compatible with women’s rights and it also allows for ‘self-id’
See Eddie Izzard & India Willoughby. Both live in England and both have self-identified as women.
Likewise Robyn White.
Rishi Sunak doesn’t care about ‘freedom of speech’ if he did he would repeal all his ‘hate crime bills’
Don’t let the Tories fool you not the ones at UK level or the ones based in Scotland.
link to archive.is
Sunak backs Rowling after ‘arrest me’ challenge to Scotland’s hate crime laws
On a personal level Sunak is probably a very nice guy and he’s letting his personal views show but he’s got to remember he has chosen to be the leader of the Tory party and UK Prime Minister. His personal views don’t count.
The process of passing an idea or debate into legislation to pass as law is finalised by given Royal Assent, this piece of legislation was given Royal Assent,
The Crown and Sovereignty resides in Westminster,
A few sensible posts above pointing out that whilst this awful legislation is a gross attack on free speech and the people of this country that must be resisted at any cost, the other political parties are themselves no friends of freedom either. All are on-board with the high-tax, Big State, interventionist agenda which seeks to take away any vestige of your freedom, whether it is you driving a car, taking a flight on holiday, having a decent disposable income that won’t be taxed away from you, or being able to state the blindingly obvious fact that a bloke in a dress is not and never will be a woman.
@ twathater at 3.56 and imacg at 10.20
The choices for “country” in the petition will, I think, be determined by the platform hosting it, not the client, who is unlikely to be able to change it.
Are there platforms that offer “Scotland”? Maybe – in which case one of them would have been a better choice. I can’t recall ever seeing that option in a pull-down list of countries on a petition, though I very occasionally have when ordering something, and I try to tell the vendor that they have my approval.
@ Ian Brotherhood at 10.11: “I tweeted a full copy of Sally Hughes’ letter to the Chief Constable. It has had a quarter of a million views.”
Fantastic result, IB. I feel very encouraged by that. Thanks for re-tweeting the letter. There’s hope yet.
The SNP and the Greens were the vehicle used to promote the Public order, and Hate Crime Bill in Scotland, however it could not become a legislation Act without the finalised Royal Assent approval being given.
At the end of the debate This is a dispute regarding where Sovereignty rests in the and lies within the British Isles.
Because the Scottish devolved government is under control UK government Legislation and Statues
Westminsters claims that Sovereignty rest within Westminster parliament.
It is inevitable that Scots are worried that the end result of the Hate Crime bill which will effect “their free speech” compared to the rest of the world,
But the process of legislation and how it became finalised and passed into Scots legislation through a rolled down Scottish devolved government from Westminster parliament governance is not to be ignored,
They Scotland blames Westminster for everything that goes wrong in Scotland, it is without doubt on many occasions and issues it is well justified,
DEVOLVED in Latin, meaning, ROLLED DOWN.
Every thing is rolled down from the Government above it, it is given permission to exist or have control to exist, or not to exist in Scotland by the UK Government above it,
Wether it is the Barnett formula,
Free ports,
Trade negotiations,
The 2010 gender equality act.
The Oil.
Military and defence.
The Crown Courts.
The Secretary of Scotland.
The Civil servants of the UK.
Herein lies the problem for Scotland.
For the Uk Government is able to pass double sets of laws over Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compared to England through legislation of the UK parliament plus the through the rolled down ( Devolved ) parliaments Secondary legislations.
Whereas the UK parliament can pass one set of laws for England only,
The UK parliament by laws, Acts, and Statues has a priority and by actions taken to be the overall parliament of England,
There is no single Devolved Government over all of England,
The Country of England has not been suffering two bodies of legislative passed laws of restrictions the same as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do.
If the UK parliament of England whilst claiming it is Sovereign, being the the sole proprietor of legislation, statues and Acts through Westminster parliament governance authorising all laws to the rest of the Great- Britain.
Then Such aborrations as the “public Order, and Scottish Hate Crime Bill” entering Scotland against “Human rights freedom of speech” that intrudes into peoples homes and removes privacy data protections in Scotland has come through Secondary legislation of the rolled down devolved parliament sent to Scotland from Westminsters parliament under their Statues and legislation of the Scotland Act,
Over 3000 hate crimes reported so far to Police Scotland, I’m surprised it’s so low.
We’ve seen multiple apologises from the Zionists/ Zionist apologists over this strike in the pro-Zionist media, of course the World Central Kitchen is a Zionist/Great Satan (US) backed outfit, its remit is to usurp the UNRWA altogether.
The guy that runs it José Andrés, was allowed to build a jetty off the coast of Gaza made from rubble from the houses of in Gaza the jetty contains the remains of Palestinians buried under the rubble.
“FIRST Minister Humza Yousaf has called for immediate action from the UK Government after three British aid workers in Gaza were killed by the Israeli military.
The three British nationals were among those killed in an airstrike on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity convoy in Gaza on Monday.”
link to thegrayzone.com
Jakey Trolling stood up to them, head on, and has won. Apparently, now, “it was never a thing” that e.g. “misgendering” would put you in the jail, no (- okay we damn well tried it, but no)
– so it just goes to show – “the system works” and all this fear mongering about civil liberties, rights and freedoms is overblown and a smokescreen for the real issue which is what a bad lot the tories are.
Having the GDP of a mid-sized nation in your bank account had nothing to do with it.
– just wait to see what happens when the cops need quick wins and the little people are involved; it won’t be on the internet, just the local press, people getting “thrown up against the wall”.
The police helo just flew over my house – probably a misgendering in a working class area.
If Sovereignty resides and rests within Westminster parliament, then that very Sovereignty gave Royal Assent to the Scottish public Order , and Hate Crime Bill to be passed in Scotland.
Crazycat @ 11.29am
‘@ twathater at 3.56 and imacg at 10.20
The choices for “country” in the petition will, I think, be determined by the platform hosting it, not the client, who is unlikely to be able to change it’
The addendum on SALVO emails is: –
“You received this email because you joined Salvo.
You can unsubscribe at any time.”
It then gives this address; –
Salvoscot Ltd,
16 Muir Street,
Hamilton,
ML3 6EP,
United Kingdom.
@ Ebok and Crazycat I do understand that when choosing country there are very few sites that accommodate Scotland as a dropdown choice, but then again any politician wanting your signature on a petition should maybe look at crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s , IMO it is just another example of a rushed 360degree about turn, similar to the legal challenge for the snp leadership
It is not just the country option I object to, I have commented that ALBA’s commitment to the GRA and the HCA has been lukewarm at best, re the GRA they have stated they will be seeking reform on certain aspects of the bill and the same with the HCA, obviously recently the lukewarm aspect caused division within the membership and support as they were trying too hard to accommodate everyone as exemplified by Alex Salmond making excuses that Yvonne Ridley was misinterpreted
MY OPINION is not that Ash Regan was lied to or thought one thing and it turned out another, MY QUESTION is WHY did Ash Regan think we needed another CONTROVERSIAL law at all, there are already ample laws to protect and safeguard minorities, how about laws to get us to independence or how about laws to ABOLISH the need for foodbanks, THAT should earn her vote
AFAIC ALBA have been caught with their pants down they are mirroring the middle class snp management in trying to appeal to everyone with their progressive civic don’t scare the horses non confrontational platitudes
“MY QUESTION is WHY did Ash Regan think we needed another CONTROVERSIAL law at all”
That is indeed a very important question for which we need an answer. However, and personally speaking, I have the feeling those passing laws in Holyrood do not engage in an awful lot of thinking. They simply tend to do as they are told, so they do not know, or bother in understanding, what it is they will be imposing on the people of Scotland. In my view, this is a consequence of Scotland being a colony and having an external entity dictating on our own legislative and executive powers what to include in Scotland’s own constitutional law.
There are several other questions that require an urgent answer:
1. Given that the exact same toxic legislation is being imposed in England, where exactly did this legislation originate?
2. What entity in the UK designed this toxic legislation?
Who elected that entity?
3. What legitimacy does that entity have to dictate what should enter Scotland’s own constitutional body of law?
4.Is the reason behind Yousaf and Sturgeon acting as this entity’s useful idiots doing the dirty work of forcing this legislation into parliament and then whipping SNP MPs to pass this, that whichever entity who designed this legislation has no legitimacy to encroach in Scotland’s own body of constitutional law?
5. If the monarch did not swore the oath in Scotland to be declared Scotland’s legitimate monarch, what legitimacy, if any, does an entity responding to the English crown have in dictating what legislation should enter the body of Scotland’s constitutional law?
6. Why this particular law was not passed simply at UK level in Westminster? Why did it have to be passed separately by each of the parliaments of the UK so as to be incorporated in each of the nation’s own body of constitutional law? What makes this particular law so special that cannot be repealed even if the UK ends?
7. Would it be because those who engineered this legislation are planning to impose on us something else that clashes with our actual constitutional law and therefore need for this crap to be included in Scotland’s body of constitutional law in advance so it can “superseed” first whatever clashes with what is coming down the road?
8. What are they preparing us for?
I very much dislike to see the option “United Kingdom” as the only choice for country when this is Scotland and for the life of me I do not understand how on earth can possibly be so difficult to remove that option and instead including England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is even more vexatious in this case, because the legislation we are trying to repeal is not “UK” legislation. It is Scotland’s legislation. So yes, ALBA should know better than this. But to me, right now, it is far more important to have this travesty repealed and removed from Scotland’s body of constitutional law to prevent whatever the bstrds behind this will try to impose on us, than to make a stance about the options in a drop down menu.
Can anybody be 100% sure that when Regan voted for this crap it was openly known that the identical parallel version in England was also in the pipeline? Was she aware, or allowed to have access to, all the facts?
How many of us knew this toxic law was a concerted and coordinated strategy across the entire UK, and worse, that is being foisted in the body of constitutional law of each of the four countries?
I admit I only found out after Ruby highlighted it here.
Thank you Ruby.
Mia I usually agree with everything you write and I do understand it is possibly miniscule to fixate on a drop down menu, but IMO it is just a further example of a multitude of mistakes and stupidity that WE the people of Scotland have had to put up with for the last 10 years
Irrespective of the alleged lies and assurances Ash Regan received from DUMBZA , and TBQH if she is telling the truth and she did, WHY is this the first SCOTLAND is hearing about it , the vote for the HCB took place in 2021 which she VOTED FOR and supported, it is now April 2024 she is either a very slow thinker or she is using it to cover up her duplicitous action
AGAIN I will ask anyone or everyone WHY did Ash Regan feel that SCOTLAND needed another Hate Crime Law , are we SCOTS so despicable and filled with bile
TBQH Scotland and Scots are in such a horrible position BECAUSE we constantly believe politicians are telling the truth, and constantly we are lied to, BUT we still give them some messianic quality and defend them against everyone despite the evidence before our very eyes
Every one of the cretins in HR who voted FOR this legislation are IMO SCOTLAND AND SCOTS HATERS, they discussed this reviled law with individuals and organisations who most benefitted from curtailment of freedom of speech , and ignored and cast aside the people who would be most affected and silenced by the introduction of this act
Every one of these so called representatives including Ash Regan who voted for this act believe that Scots are a hateful group of people with no empathy or compassion that should be silenced, excluded and banished from normal society for their uncontrollable despicable actions towards others
EITHER THAT OR THEY ARE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY VOTED FOR
I believe version 1
OK, I’m going out on a limb here.
I’m English, a conservative and a deep supporter of the Union.
However, before you all flame me, I also have an utter devotion to the principle of free speech. This website is the epitome of what we should all be fighting for. I disagree with 90% (possibly more) of the views for independence expressed here, but I still look pretty much every day because it’s one of the few places left for proper debate.
By debate, or you may prefer argument, I mean that people who disagree with each other actually put forward points of view to be tested, countered and examined rather than just be a place where the ‘winner’ is whomever uses the biggest font and the most exclamation marks. Don’t even get me started on anyone who ends the their post with ‘FACT!’ as it’s usually the reverse.
Should Scotland decide, following the correct procedures, to become independent then I will be deeply sad but I will accept it. In the meantime, I tip my hat to all of those who who fight for what they believe in and do so because they feel they would be better off that way. You may hate the English (I know some of you do, but I also know that the majority of you don’t), but I would respectfully suggest that this is not the way to win hearts and minds.
I will probably never post again, but I will always hold a deep respect for Scotland for what it has given the world and I wish all WoS readers and posters all the hope and goodwill in the world.