I should be broadcasting to Australia right now, but I politely declined the request so I could write to you instead. I love my job as Scotland correspondent and, of course, lots of the topics I report on have global relevance. But it’s not every week that I’m fielding calls from international newsrooms desperate for me to explain the technicalities of the latest Holyrood parliament legislation.
So it was this week. The Scottish government’s new hate crime law is supposed to protect vulnerable communities from abuse. Instead, it has resulted in an almighty omnishambles that has dominated the headlines at home and abroad, with fierce arguments about the limits of free speech, police officers overwhelmed by thousands of potentially vexatious complaints and, most critically, the groups it was seeking to protect warning that the debate has veered too far from the reality of hate crime they experience on the streets of Scotland every day. I’ll explain what the law was designed to do and why it has proved so controversial after this morning’s headlines.
