“You can’t say that!”
A great article on Spiked points out that whilst we all look on at the Sudan teddy bear affair in bewilderment, it isn’t all plain sailing back in Blighty where we have our own policing of morality.
Perhaps we should show our contempt of irrational theocracy by repealing our blasphemy laws, rather than all of this incitement to religious hatred stuff which is a sort of blasphemy-lite for non-christianity. As it stands, the opinionated blogger is walking on eggshells saying anything that offends the PC liberal classes.
There are now quite a few things categorised as hate crimes in Britain. What is hated? Sometimes it might just be intense dislike. Is a particular crime more serious because it is against a protected minority group than anyone else? The home Office definition is:
Any incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate.
(My emphasis).
However, Wikipedia adds the following:
Hate crimes differ from conventional crime because they are not directed simply at an individual, but are meant to cause fear and intimidation in an entire group or class of people.
Yes, that makes sense, shipping Jews off to Belsen and Auschwitz certainly passes that test. However, what about the following?
My eye was caught by an article on the beeb called fears over disability hate crime. It is appalling that some narrow minded f*ckwitt Chavs behave this way, but surely this isn’t a hate crime at all, it is just plain old fashioned bullying. It used to happen to me as a kid because I wore specs…
