Lorraine Courtney: Scotland’s hate-speech laws have been a disaster – are you watching, Simon Harris?
In the first week since Scotland introduced new hate-crime legislation, Scottish police received more than 7,000 hate-crime complaints. It sounds less like a legal development and more like a new national sport.
On one hand, we’ve got the sobering possibility that Scotland is a hotbed of hate. On the other hand, we’ve got the equally sobering possibility that this is an example of legislation gone rogue, a cautionary tale about the dangers of rushing into legislation without fully considering the consequences.
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