The Most Hate-Filled Country in the World

Scotland's hate crime act is a calamity because the government and the police have made it so.

As always, thank you for reading The Debatable Land. Newcomers can sign-up to receive future posts simply by pressing this button:

This is a poster that may now be seen plastered on advertising hoardings across Scotland. It helps explain just how and why Scotland - plucky little Scotland - became the most hateful small country on earth. This, long-memoried readers will recall, is at least a novel spin on Jack McConnell’s aspiration that Scotland should aspire to be “the best small country in the world”. McConnell - the last but not the final Labour first minister - was much mocked for that slogan on the grounds that it was simultaneously naff and twee and, more quietly, obviously unattainable.

The introduction of Scotland’s new hate crime act, passed three years ago but delayed until this month, has become an example of how not to manage political communications. Public affairs agencies will use it as a warning: look at Scotland, don’t be like Scotland.

In the last week Police Scotland…