A protest is held outside the Scottish Parliament against the Hate Crime Act.
Representatives of the socially conservative Scottish Family Party were among those giving speeches.
The rally was partly organised by Stef Shaw, known as the "Glasgow Cabbie".
Representatives of the socially conservative Scottish Family Party were among those giving speeches.
The rally was partly organised by Stef Shaw, known as the "Glasgow Cabbie".
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:05 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant, the Political Editor of The Scotsman and I'm here outside the Scottish
00:08 Parliament in Edinburgh where people have gathered to protest against the new Hate Crime
00:13 Act. This is a legislation that has come into force today on Monday April 1st, been generating
00:19 a lot of controversy in Scotland. It essentially consolidates existing hate crime law but crucially
00:25 also creates a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics including
00:30 age, sexual orientation and transgender identity. A stirring up offence against racial hatred
00:37 has been on the statute book in Scotland since 1986 but the new legislation has raised concerns
00:43 about a potential chilling effect on free speech. Linked to that there's also concerns
00:49 about how the police might implement this, how they might go about enforcing this law.
00:55 There's also concerns that the police could face a flood of complaints relating to comments
00:58 made on social media. There's concerns as well raised by the Scottish Police Federation
01:04 about the training that's been given to officers. High profile critics of the Hate Crime Act
01:09 include J.K. Rowling who launched an attack on the legislation this morning on social
01:14 media. She said it's wide open to abuse and she also said "I'm currently out of the country
01:19 but what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new Act. I
01:25 look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment."
01:29 So quite strong comments from J.K. Rowling and as you can see there's quite a lot of
01:32 people gathered behind me outside the Scottish Parliament to protest against this Act. It's
01:36 a protest that was co-organised by the Glasgow Cabbie aka Steph Shaw. Also quite a lot, a
01:43 strong involvement on the stage from the Scottish Family Party, the socially conservative party.
01:49 Well it's a protest against Humza Yousaf, the SNP and Scottish Greens, hate crime laws
01:55 here in Scotland which are draconian and could decent people, decent good people, set them
02:02 back in terms of employment and various other things because you go into a database if somebody
02:07 is perceiving that you have been a naughty boy or a naughty girl and report you to Police
02:13 Scotland. Well this is based on perception and it's wrong to base a crime on perception.
02:20 The other thing is that in actual crimes that are happening, smaller, minor crimes that
02:24 are happening such as burglaries, it could be breach of the peace. Police are now ignoring
02:30 them to say that they will investigate every hate crime complaint in the country. We campaigned
02:38 against the gender reforms and they collapsed and Nicola Sturgeon resigned only five weeks
02:43 later. Let's hope the same thing happens here.
02:46 [Music]