The SNP has confused football fans over the new law proposals that will eliminate sectarianism. The law means that the singing of some football chants will become illegal, while the singing of others will not. The Scottish Community Safety Minister is Roseanna Cunningham and she has said that, “Songs that can potentially cause public disorder are the ones that we want to stop. Police officers are going to be the ones making the decisions on the street about which songs may cause public disorder.”
Critics have said that the law will just create confusion as people will not be sure which songs are a criminal offence and which are not. The implementation of the law has been delayed after comments by Ms Cunningham that the singing of ‘God Save the Queen’ could be illegal.
Tom Devine a leading academic drew the comments from Ms Cunningham after he asked her to clarify the law saying that in its current state, “It could make this whole area of Scottish law into nothing more than a joke.”
Ms Cunningham further said, “This Bill does not suggest that any offensive behaviour would become illegal. It only covers offensive behaviour that the reasonable person would see as being able to cause violence. To think it could cover all offensive behaviour is just absurd, and besides, we simply do not have the space in our jails.”
The Scottish Labour justice spokesperson is Tom Kelly and he has said of the comments made by Ms Cunningham, “Those attending football matches need to know what is, and is not, allowed. We cannot have some arbitrary law; it is just going to leave people confused. This is just a complete shambles; it’s just leaving us with more questions than we have the answers to.”