Bullshit Law in England

[tigerbob]

I rather like the fact that she was arrested, not so much because of what she said as for the way she said it.

I have no problem with someone expounding what is essentially a political opinion about immigration, but I do have a problem with the manner in which this woman expressed it.

I always try to think about how i would feel under the circumstances. As a Brit living in the US, I would not have a problem if someone told me they thought non-Americans should be asked to return to their own country, but I would if that person expressed that opinion in the same vile tone of voice that this woman used.

I'm not familiar with with how the "hate speech" law is worded, but I agree that in this particular instance it clearly crossed the line from someone expressing a political opinion into what is, IMO, clearly "hate speech".

Note the use of "IMO". That is the one area of difficulty. Determining what is actually 'hateful' seems to be such a subjective matter that I do have a concern about how the law is interpreted - not in this particular case (I don't think anyone would disagree that what she said was vile), but I can think of multiple scenarios that would be significantly more difficult to judge.