It’s (still) shite being Scottish

I am not the only one evidently getting into trouble from idiots who believe that bits of the full content of the rant from which the name of this blog is taken is somehow offensive.

A lecturer in Film and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh has been reported to the cops for a hate crime because he made ironic reference to it in a tweet.

The full story appears in the Edinburgh Evening News:

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/stunned-edinburgh-university-lecturer-reported-to-police-for-quoting-trainspotting-1-4888299

I do not wish to judge unfairly the person who took the complaint to the cops, but clearly somebody with an irony deficiency or a sense of humour bypass needs to learn about context and how to research stuff on the interwebs before wasting police time.

As quoted in the article, police time was indeed taken up with the matter.

The [police] spokesman added: “A full investigation was conducted and it was established that no crime had been committed. However, the matter was recorded as a hate incident.

“No further police action was required.”

No action required, but the matter recorded as a hate incident?

No hate crime was committed and yet it stands on record as a hate incident – an intriguing difference, explained by Citizens Advice:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/hate-crime/what-are-hate-incidents-and-hate-crime/

So a hate incident occurs when the victim or anyone else thinks it was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on disability, race, religion, transgender identity or sexual orientation.

Which means that if a person believes something is a hate incident it should be recorded as such by the person to whom it is reported. All police forces record hate incidents based on these five personal characteristics.

Offence in this case was taken to the description in Renton’s Epic rant of the English as wankers. If the ones offended had done some basic research, they would have discovered that this alleged offence comes after the Scots have been described as “wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic, trash.”

It’s shite being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilisation. Some hate the English. I don’t. They’re just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers. Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonised by. We’re ruled by effete arseholes. It’s a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!

Last time I looked, being English is no indication of disability, race, religion, transgender identity, or sexual orientation, nor is alleged masturbation any sign of a particular sexual or transgender identity or orientation.

So it is not immediately clear why this was recorded as an incident of any kind.

Police time being systematically wasted by the right of anybody at all to feel offended by anything at all, without taking any responsibility at all, for not understanding anything at all.

Another sign of these interesting times.