BY Ian Dunn | January 6 | 
0 COMMENTS 
print
MSP plans bill to repeal offensive behaviour act
A Labour MSP has said he will introduce a member's bill to scrap a controversial law designed to stamp out sectarianism in football if he is re-elected in May.
James Kelly, the member for Rutherglen, claims the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act 2012 is not combating sectarianism and instead is ‘eroding trust’ between football fans and the police. The legislation was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2011 and has been controversial since it was introduced, with many football supporters claiming it undermines freedom of speech.
“The place to tackle intolerance is in our classrooms and community groups and this football act is a barrier to that,” Mr Kelly, who attended the local Catholic high school as a teenager, said. “The SNP Government in Edinburgh don’t understand that the problem of sectarianism in Scotland goes far beyond 90 minutes on a Saturday. The next generation should be the one that ends sectarianism for good, but that starts with getting our priorities straight, and repealing the football act.”
A Catholic Church spokesman previously told the SCO that: “The Catholic Church does have a sympathetic understanding for those football supporters who feel targeted by the Offensive Behaviour at Football legislation. It is fair to suggest that the Offensive Behaviour at Football law has not been helpful.”
Mr Kelly, who will seek to retain his Rutherglen seat in the May election, is also seeking a place on the party’s Glasgow regional list.
RSS Feeds