The single category of human being not protected in Scotland’s already-notorious body of hate-speech laws (misogyny, whatever that might mean, is soon to get a special hate law of its own) is white men. We poor contemptible creatures apparently lack any of the “protected characteristics” that are required to solicit the wrath of the law. Much the same spirit inhabits the Irish anti-hate laws, which have attracted so much support from male TDs. Placating one’s opponents in order to avoid accusations of misogyny, racism, ablism and ism-ism itself is no more than digging one’s own grave: when it is nice and deep, simply hand over the spade to your enemy, who’ll finish the job with a downward sweep of the blade: followed by “next please…..”
To be sure, the Scottish Parliament “debated” this subject, if that is the right verb to describe the abject submission of Scottish Members of the Regional Assembly, whinnying their guilt as they dug dug dug their way to their doom. Much of Scotland has been turned into a perpetual parody of itself, but not of the traditional Scotland of knife-fights in the Gorbals and deep-fried Mars bars to the victors, but like a group of amateur actors who are trying to stage a play without understanding its meaning. Scotland has no idea of what it wants to be. Instead, it is attempting to impose a set of Agreed Virtues which taken together will become the core of Scottish identity.
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