Scottish government’s Hate Crime Bill comes into effect next month; Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare has arrived

Scottish government’s Hate Crime Bill comes into effect next month; Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare has arrived

Rhoda Wilson

For three years, Scotland’s ‘Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill’ has been lurking in the shadows.  It is now going to come into effect from 1 April meaning that “misogyny” and “stirring up hatred” will be recorded as a criminal offence.

“It has taken 40 years longer than Orwell predicted,” the Scottish Daily Express wrote, “but we have finally arrived in the totalitarian nightmare that he feared.”

The following was originally published by the Scottish Daily Express as the article titled ‘It must be April Fool’s Day in the SNP’s Scotland when calling a male person a ‘man’ becomes illegal’.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell’s famous opening to 1984 couldn’t be more appropriate as Scotland prepares to enter a dystopian universe where Big Brother is always watching and hate crime is simply saying something that another person doesn’t like.

The Scottish Government confirmed today that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act will take effect on 1 April bringing with it some of the most draconian curbs on freedom of speech and expression in any free democracy on earth. It has taken 40 years longer than Orwell predicted … but we have finally arrived in the totalitarian nightmare that he feared.

Incredibly, the first test case of these new Scottish National Party (“SNP”) restrictions may well come via the billionaire author JK Rowling, whose Harry Potter books have brought light and happiness into the lives of countless children. She was recently reported to the police in England for describing the trans woman broadcaster India Willoughby as a “man.”

Northumbria Police were reassuringly quick to tell Willoughby that no crime had been committed but it remains to be seen what will happen in Scotland if a similar remark were to be reported after 1 April. Rowling, whose Ministry of Magic was another literary example of how easily state powers could be subverted, could find herself in a plot too far-fetched even for her own fertile imagination.

In another horrendous irony, the police will begin enforcing this new and dangerous legislation – which will also make misogyny a hate crime – at around the same time as a cost-cutting new policy is rolled out nationwide which will mean that around one in 20 actual crimes are no longer investigated.

If somebody breaks into your garden shed and steals your bike, for example, or if your car is vandalised, then no action will be taken unless there is a witness or other evidence such as CCTV footage. However, if you were to say that you wouldn’t want an adult transgender female with male genitalia to share a changing room at the swimming pool with your daughter, then you may risk prosecution.