Leader: Recipe for resentment

IT WAS sensible of Alex Salmond to decide, before the summer, that his government’s anti-sectarianism legislation would not, as planned, be rushed through Holyrood in time to be on the statute book for the start of the football season. Clearly, the full implications had not been fully thought through and there was a serious risk of passing legislation that was deeply flawed. Now the summer has passed, however, the concern is whether these measures can ever be made sufficiently coherent and credible.

The array of organisations opposed to the SNP’s plans is now alarmingly broad, encompassing the churches, the Old Firm and football supporters’ organisations. Their key objection is one government ministers and the Lord Advocate are finding hard to counter: namely, the confusion over what behaviour – for example, which songs commonly heard on the terraces – are deemed beyond the pale of the law. There is also confusion – even bafflement – as to why the legislation additionally covers behaviour deemed offensive on the grounds of gender, disability, transgender identity, nationality and sexual orientation. This suggests an entirely different standard of behaviour is required by law when someone steps into a football stadium.

Of course sectarianism is a scourge that must be countered. Sensible measures will win cross-party support. But a law that is unclear about what is and is not a criminal act is a recipe for confusion and resentment.