As from today much of the contents of this post will most likely be a criminal offence in Scotland. This is because the Scottish National Party (SNP) government in Edinburgh has decided to extend Britain’s already excessively oppressive and notably inequitably enforced ‘hate speech’ laws with their own Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 which comes into force today.

Although the Scottish Government in Edinburgh is trying to reassure the public that this new legislation will not hamper freedom of speech, will be compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights and will have a ‘reasonableness’ defence. I’m really not sure that I believe them on that. We’ve seen from the experience elsewhere in the UK that laws such as this can end up being weaponised by activists in order to silence or punish their opponents. ‘Hate speech’ laws as applied in England and Wales are a big reason why for example campaigners for women’s rights have been ripped from their families by police at the behest of transgender activists because of comments that women’s rights campaigners have made about the impact of the cult of trans on their lives and the lives of other women and children.

The phrase in 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 claim that transgenderism is a mental illness. It would also potentially criminalise those who say that the label ‘trans’ also encompasses those with paraphilias such as Autogynephilia where men, and it is mostly men, get sexual arousal from seeing themselves as women.

Although there are no extraterritoriality clauses in the new Act there does exist the possibility that a blogger or a journalist or even an average British subject elsewhere in the UK could fall foul of the Scottish law because they’ve written something that is aimed at a Scottish audience or is readable and visible in Scotland. It’s a small chance of this happening but it could happen all the same.

However although there is a risk to all in this specifically Scottish Act it is the Scots themselves who are likely to suffer the most from this appalling piece of legislation. Sadly I do foresee this legislation being weaponised by activists there. I see a situation that could develop where extremist religious groups use the law to silence critics and trans activists use this legislation to attack and harass their opponents in the gender critical movement despite English courts deeming gender critical beliefs to be ‘worthy of respect’ in a civilised society.

This legislation is not going to do anything to reduce ‘hate’ as it is stupid and dangerous to try to legislate hate away and its the ultimate in overreach for governments to try to control emotions by law. Such legal paths did not work when applied to National Socialists in Weimar Germany (in fact the application of such laws ended up giving the Nazis extra publicity) and all that they will accomplish in Scotland is to oppress the people of Scotland even more than the SNP has done already.

Therefore as others are doing I am going to make some statements that as of today could infringe the new Scottish ‘hate speech’ law in order to point out the ludicrous nature of it. These statements are:

Men cannot become Women

Women cannot become Men

Men cannot give birth

There is a large mental health component to transgenderism and it is these mental health issues that need to be tackled and not have the patient’s delusions affirmed

Transgenderism damages women’s and children’s rights and safety

Islam is not a religion of peace

Muslim dominated grooming gangs exist

Autogynephilia is a sexual kink and a major part of transgenderism

Those who promote the cult of gender to children are a type of groomer

There is a problem with extremist Islam and Islam derived Jew hatred in Britain’s mosques

Women do not and cannot have penises.

Gay men are allowed to choose to not be intimate with women pretending to be men

Lesbian women are allowed to choose to not be intimate with men pretending to be women

First Minister Humza Yousef has made racialist statements to the Scottish Parliament

Mr Yousef’s government sent £700k to a UN agency with known connections to Hamas and we need to ask ‘why’?

India Willoughby is a man who used to be a television presenter called Jonathan Willoughby

Screw your useless and untrue pronouns

Despite the what I believe are empty promises from the Scottish government about protection of free speech, all or any of the above statements could be seen as crimes in Scotland and maybe further afield. Scots and even those not in Scotland could end up with being arrested and charged for any or all of them.

Scotland was once one of the birthplaces of The Enlightenment that revolution in society that took society away from blind obedience to religion and which built the foundations to freedom of thought and speech. It is both immensely sad and worrying to see the Scottish government throw this history away for a bad piece of legislation that is not going to protect anyone from hate but will be used instead as a cudgel to attack those who speak up against those fashionable political causes that are supported by Scotland’s political elite.