Members of the Scottish Parliament have been cautioned by a notable academic that changing the law with the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill could make the legal process look foolish. Tom Devine is a professor from the University of Edinburgh has described the bill as far too wide, saying that it could say that simple political statements were sectarian crimes.
Devine has commented, “The problem is people are not going to be sure what is a political belief and what is an offensive statement. If these bill is made law than it will bring this area of the law into disrepute. I also wonder why this Bill has been extended to such a great extent, so that it now covers many other things, rather than the sectarianism that it was originally made for.”
The potential law has been expanded to cover any offence that is driven by race, colour, sexual orientation or disability, among others. Devine has said, “There are important issues that need to be covered, but this law will just make everything far too ambiguous. We need to wait for there to be real evidence for making such a law, only that way will it be effective. There has only been one study conducted, back in 2004 and that was no where near deep enough.”
Cardinal Keith O’Brien has said in the past that the reason for the religious violence in Scotland is because the state is against Catholics, Professor Devine has said the passing of this law will only confirm this belief. Research from the 2004 report suggested that Catholics were many times more likely to be subject to a sectarian attack. He also urged the Scottish government to wait for the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland to complete a more conclusive study, which has been collecting data since 2003.