OPPRESSION in Scotland has just taken another Orwellian turn.
A new law means that even what you say in your own home could be a criminal offence.
Every authoritarian state in history has targeted the family, aiming to cow the parents into submission.
The Germans used it to great effect in World War Two, with children encouraged to report anything that challenged Hitler and his gang of thugs.
The Hate Crime Bill is a pernicious and, I hope, final act of a dying Scottish National Party, still obsessed with ruinous independence.
Thousands have already objected to this assault on free speech as the Bill’s implications begin to sink in.
Let’s be clear, this new law of “stirring up of hatred” is wide-ranging and includes age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity.
Outrageously, women are not included.
If found guilty, the maximum sentence is a fine and seven years’ imprisonment.
Even a complaint could be listed permanently under the accused’s name as a ‘Non Crime Hate Incident’, forever discoverable during, for example, job applications.
Opinion is just that and, so long as no one is harmed, we must be able to say and believe what we think, even if it causes offence, which in most cases is subjective, anyway.
The brave author, JK Rowling, listed 10 high-profile transwomen on her X account, before insisting they were “men” and inviting Police Scotland to arrest her for saying so.
Despite numerous complaints against her for “misgendering”, they’ve wisely taken no action – so far.
I know many Scots, and have met many more, and I would bet that most of them are appalled at what is going on in their name.
This new law needs to be thrown out; so, too, the politicians who supported it.