No it is not the law. You are simply wrong and scaremongering. ETA: The E&W laws have been tested several times and the bar is set very high - as it should be (the SC covers Scotland as well)
And really I wouldn't use GB News as a reliable news site. And even that site had to conclude with it being a load of crap.
Its NOT a load of crap - its not a made up story. This actually did happen and even the Scottish Police acknowledged what happened.
Police Scotland said: “A 74-year-old woman was arrested on Tuesday, 9 April, 2024 in connection with a report of verbal abuse in the Harbour Road area of Troon on Monday, 8 April, 2024.
"When I asked why I was being taken to a station they said it was the new bill that had come out on April 1.
“I was searched, my jewellery was taken off, my phone turned off, my bag was emptied into plastic bags. I felt like a criminal.
“They told me that I’d called her a ‘simple m***o’. That’s not even a name I would call anyone.
“They said there was no charge or criminal record and let me go."
She was arrested
because she called someone a name. And you really think this is OK? Whether or not this was ultimately the Law she was arrested under,
it is the law the cops believed they were applying - and that is the ONLY thing that matters
when the process is the punishment.
"Humza Yousaf’s dangerous Hate Crime Act is open to exploitation by individuals looking to settle scores, and this can lead to innocent people being targeted and, in some cases, carted off in police vans."
I repeat, you put these laws in place, and it has a chilling effect on free speech. I don't give a fat rat's arse that
"the bar is set very high" because the real problem is that people will abuse such a law. There are already nearly 10,000 complaints under the new law. People are not deterred from speaking their minds because they might end up in court, they are deterred
because of the process they would be subjected to, being handcuffed and taken away in front of neighbors, friends, family. Having to undergo interrogation, having to get (and pay for) a lawyer to represent them.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27294270/hate-crime-police-neighbour-morag-brown-troon-arrested/