Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act will have a chilling effect on free speech

By Helen Joyce: Britain editor, The Economist

IN “ON LIBERTY”, the greatest defence of free speech ever penned, John Stuart Mill, the son of a Scottish philosopher and economist, condemned the “assumption of infallibility”—being so certain you are right that you take it upon yourself to settle a question for everyone else “without allowing them to hear what can be said on the contrary side”. If only today’s Scottish politicians were listening. The country’s new Hate Crime Act, which is expected to come into force in 2022, will make certain political arguments punishable by up to seven years in jail. It creates an offence of “stirring up” hatred, criminalising utterances that are considered inflammatory or insulting even when they cause no actual harm and are not intended to incite a specific act. And it covers private conversations, even within the home.