Humza Yousaf is wrong. Scotland is not a hateful nation – Susan Dalgety

Scotland’s biggest social divide is still based on class as Police Scotland’s cynical profiling of young working-class men as those most likely to commit hate crimes demonstrates

Does Scotland need protected from a “rising tide of hatred”? Is our country now a nasty place, our communities divided, our public discourse cruel and spiteful? It would seem so, at least according to the man in charge. Earlier this week, a beleaguered First Minister, looking as if he has the woes of the world on his young shoulders – he is after all still only in his 30s – declared that Scotland was in danger of drowning in bile. His doom-laden description of our country as a land of hate was his response to the controversy surrounding the implementation of the Hate Crime Act, which has in its first week managed to attract a record number of negative headlines, and pit Yousaf against one of the world’s most famous people, JK Rowling.

The First Minister’s horrific description of Scotland was not the first time in recent weeks that the SNP has suggested that we are a nation at war with itself. In the days running up to the act coming into force, mild-mannered SNP backbencher Fulton MacGregor was deployed to defend the new law. Speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight, probably the biggest media gig he has ever had, he opened his remarks by declaring that hatred was wreaking havoc across the land.

“Hate crime is a major problem,” he said, and predicted there would be a deluge of complaints against the aforementioned world-famous author. He was at least right on that point. To date, Rowling has attracted thousands of complaints for her claim that trans women are in fact men. None of which have been upheld by Police Scotland.

Humza Yousaf has spoken of a 'rising tide of hatred' in Scotland amid controversy over the Hate Crime Act (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

‘The Scots love people’

But back to the First Minister’s startling suggestion that Scotland is a bitter and divided nation. It contrasts quite significantly with the national tourism agency’s marketing campaign, which describes the country as a place of “epic natural landscapes, engaging cities and rich cultural heritage”. No mention of hate there. But don’t take Visit Scotland’s word for it. National Geographic, no less, has included Scotland in its 2024 Best of the World travel guide. Riding the Royal Scotsman train through the Highlands is up there as a must-do adventure, along with the total eclipse in Niagara Falls on Monday and glacier treks in Chile. The Hate Monster doesn’t rear his ugly head once.

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The nation’s official website, Scotland.org, which showcases the country to people thinking of working, studying, visiting or doing business here, is effusive in its praise of Scotland and its people. “The Scots love people – and they like to make others feel at home. You’ll find an enthusiastic friendliness in so many places,” it states. And it raves about our national diversity. “… we’re a rich and diverse country which sees many different cultures from across the world living in harmony together.”

Harmony or hate? Which is it, First Minister? Can Scotland really be drowning in a sea of hate, while at the same time selling itself as a harmonious, multi-cultural haven? When in doubt, examine the statistics. The Crown Office numbers for 2022-23 show that there was a drop in the number of charges containing at least one element of hate crime, compared to the previous year. There are still too many, with racial crime the most commonly reported, but there is little evidence of a rising tide of hatred, or that hatred is creating havoc across the country – until Monday that is, and the introduction of the Hate Crime Act.

No Pollyanna nation

Yousaf, as he keeps reminding us, is of Asian heritage, but he is privately educated with a satisfied air of middle-class self-confidence, as is his old schoolmate, Scottish Labour boss Anas Sarwar. They have risen, seemingly with little effort, to the top of Scottish public life. Would that have happened if we really were a nation engulfed in racial hate? Or would lesbians Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale been able to lead their respective parties, if we were riven by homophobia?

That said, Scotland is no Pollyanna nation where everyone loves each other, regardless of class, colour or culture. There are deeply embedded tensions and divisions, from the religious sectarianism that has shamed our nation for centuries to the prejudice that sees racist graffiti sprayed near the First Minister’s family home. But in recent years, Scotland has become a far more tolerant country – one where “many cultures” do, by and large, live in harmony together, and where the First Minister can celebrate Iftar – the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan – in his official residence, Bute House, to little comment.

Progressive elites

The biggest divide in our country remains class. Witness Police Scotland’s cynical profiling of young working-class men from “socially excluded communities” as those most likely to commit hate crimes because of their ideas about “white-male entitlement”. Yet it is those young men, whose life chances have been even more restricted by the pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, who are the victims of barely concealed contempt. Often, it has to be said, emanating from Scotland’s self-proclaimed progressive elite, of which the First Minister is the poster boy.

And the constitutional question, which peaked during the referendum of 2014, exposed a nasty xenophobia that allows otherwise sane and rational Scots to spit the word ‘English’ as the ultimate insult. My Stoke-born husband is not alone in feeling threatened or abused in recent years because of his nationality.

But all things considered, Scotland is not a hateful nation. It may well suit Yousaf to paint our country in such dystopian terms. Perhaps he sees a phoney culture war as a useful deflection from the reality of his government’s abject failure in education, health and the economy. “Let them hate each other” may be the SNP’s rallying cry come the general election, but it is one that most Scots will find offensive and upsetting.