Fined for 'namecalling' Facebook post .... best be careful

[LongQ]

According to the BBC an elderly lady has been fined (in Scotland) £300 for a (briefly on line) posting on Facebook that referred to a certain type of citizen group that tends to move around the country a lot by a commonly used name starting with the letter "p".

This, it seems, is unacceptable in Scotland.

Since when was personal opinion made public deemed to be illegal?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-o...

[Gogoplata]

Yet what she said was so offensive that the BBC wrote it word for word in that article.

[jas xjr]

BBC also had a show which featured a pie and a key on the bonnet of a car. So that's ok then

[Funk]

She was right though.

[Ozzie Osmond]

LongQ said:

Since when was personal opinion made public deemed to be illegal?

1986 - when the Public Order Act prohibited expressions of racial hatred, i.e. hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Maximum sentence seven years in prison or a fine or both.

[Digga]

And when , pray, can we expect ex-Mr Madonna, Guy Ritchie to be hauled through the courts for his heniously racist portrayal of said minority in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

[thinfourth2]

Ozzie Osmond said:

LongQ said:

Since when was personal opinion made public deemed to be illegal?

1986 - when the Public Order Act prohibited expressions of racial hatred, i.e. hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Maximum sentence seven years in prison or a fine or both.

So we can expect Miss Abbot to be behind bars then

[sadako]

Digga said:

And when , pray, can we expect ex-Mr Madonna, Guy Ritchie to be hauled through the courts for his heniously racist portrayal of said minority in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

His portrail of pastry covered lock openers was in Snatch, not Lock Stock.

[Hudson]

I bet now she gets mysteriously burgled (but not by the wonderful "travelling community") in response to the BBC slapping this all over their website.

Hope for her sake they forgot to nick a modem on their last computer "shop" so they cant read it.

[mybrainhurts]

Careful, chaps, pigeon was banned from PH for an argument over the word in question.

[Digga]

sadako said:

Digga said:

And when , pray, can we expect ex-Mr Madonna, Guy Ritchie to be hauled through the courts for his heniously racist portrayal of said minority in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

His portrail of pastry covered lock openers was in Snatch, not Lock Stock.

Ooops!

Thanks for rescuing that post.

[matchmaker]

Ozzie Osmond said:

LongQ said:

Since when was personal opinion made public deemed to be illegal?

1986 - when the Public Order Act prohibited expressions of racial hatred, i.e. hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Maximum sentence seven years in prison or a fine or both.

POA doen't apply in Scotland. She will probably have been charged with Breach of the Peace. She got off lightly - maximum sentence for a BOP is life imprisonment

Edited by matchmaker on Thursday 19th January 13:59

[Hugo a Gogo]

Am I the only one who read it then?

she wasn't fined simply for using that one word which is banned on here, but for the whole tirade, and would have got exactly the same punishment if she'd called them "happy go lucky travelling filth" etc

[LongQ]

Ozzie Osmond said:

1986 - when the Public Order Act prohibited expressions of racial hatred, i.e. hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Maximum sentence seven years in prison or a fine or both.

So we could still discuss, for example, 'metal thieves from the east' providing we are not too specific about geographic origin or ethnicity?

[Caulkhead]

Ozzie Osmond said:

hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins.

So which one of those applies to the group in question?

[steviegunn]

Doesn't the court have to prove that what she said is false, is it really the case that members of the Cork & Waterford caravaneers conglomerate aren't tellers of untruths, aren't takers of things that belong to others, aren't dodgers of soap?

[King Herald]

So why did they post a pic of a 'travelling person' then??



Oh, I see, my mistake....

[Happy82]

So it's illegal to state facts now? Of all the comments that the BBC reported, there's not one that suggests an untruth?

[Happy82]

King Herald said:

So why did they post a pic of a 'travelling person' then??



Oh, I see, my mistake....

That's what living in Scotland does to you

[Ozzie Osmond]

mybrainhurts said:

Careful, chaps, pigeon was banned from PH for an argument over the word in question.

Pigeon pie?