Surprise surprise: the Hate Crime Act is in chaos

After only one week it's proved to be all but unenforceable and ignited a revolt against thought crime

The Hate Crime Scotland Act has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated, unprecedented, technicolour disaster. After 8,000 hate crime complaints in the first week of operation, there are already calls for it to be repealed - like the equally misconceived Offensive Behaviour at Football Act. According to the most recent poll, only one in five voters want to keep the act that was supposed to end what Humza Yousaf called the “rising tide of hatred”. Well it’s certainly rising now.

The act has been massively counter-productive for the progressive authoritarians who inspired it. Indeed, the Hate Crime Act seems to have started a popular revolt, not just against the new law on “stirring up hatred”, but against the pre-existing hate laws that it was supposed to enhance.