Offensive Songs - a wee survey

Paul McBride QC and others in favour of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill have said that any reasonable person would know whether they were breaking the law. I believe that reasonable people hold widely varying opinions on what will (and should) be illegal under the law when this is brought in. So I conducted some facebook polls about a number of songs. The surveys had a very small samples and a disproportionate number of Celtic fans voting, but in some ways I think that makes the results more interesting.

The results suggest that reasonable people do have significantly different expectations of what will be illegal. Indeed, people with law and journalism degrees think that the Irish national anthem will be illegal. I'll explain what I think the correct answers to be in a moment.

Song	Will and Should	Will and Shouldn't	Won't and Should	Won't and Shouldn't
The Soldier's Song	2	1		21
The Billy Boys	6	2
In Your Glasgow Slums			1	6
The Boys of the Old Brigade	2	4		1
The Sash	3		1	2
There'll Be No Huns In Europe		1		4

There is only consensus on whether two of the songs (In Your Glasgow Slums and The Billy Boys) listed will be banned. In every other case reasonable people differ on what will be illegal, nevermind what should be illegal.

I will try to say which ones I think will be illegal based on the draft guidelines provided by the government. The police, government clubs and football authorities have all refused to name individual songs that will, or won't, be illegal or banned or unwelcome. The one exception to this is the following atypical reassurance reported to The Herald, so I have used that too.

The Sash

This (along with Build My Gallows) is explicitly okay with the police according to the Herald as of the 28th of July this year, and half of respondents got this wrong. I didn't ask about the latter song as it is less well known, but it includes the lines "they say this day that I must hang cause I fought the IRA". These are the only songs with absolute clarity (unless the police have changed their mind).

The Soldier's Song

According to the draft guidelines, national anthems are okay. So, although it is about the violent struggle for Irish freedom (technically it predates the IRA), this song should be in the clear ("in the absence of any other aggravating, threatening or offensive behaviour"). Otherwise it could be banned under several of the other guidelines, notably:

• Songs/lyrics in support of terrorist organisations
• Songs/lyrics which glorifies or celebrates events involving the loss of life or serious injury.

Notably, Flower Of Scotland would certainly fall foul of the second of those (I daresay Edward II would say it fell foul of the first too), and it isn't officially a national anthem.

The Boys Of The Old Brigade

Almost everyone thought this would be banned, and I agree that it probably will, although in sentiment it seems identical to the The Soldier's Song or, on the other side, Build My Gallows, or indeed Flower of Scotland. That Flower of Scotland is not equally frowned upon is either because there has been a greater passage of time, or because it is more "Scottish".

The Billy Boys

Everyone thought this would be banned, and I agree; indeed it already is.

No Huns In Europe

This one really depends on whether you believe the word "hun" to be offensive. Almost all the respondents didn't, but Paul McBride has said that it is, so I see there being significant confusion over this one too. I'd be surprised if there many arrests over this, but it is really down to the discretion of the police officer, and their views will probably differ just as much as football fans. It is the amount of subjectivity involved in this bill that poses the greatest threat to freedom of speech, I think.

In Your Glasgow Slums

No-one thought this would be banned. In many ways I find this the most interesting one. If I had asked about "Nakamura ate my dog" I imagine I would have gotten a very different answer. Saying Nakamura eats dogs based on (inaccurate) racial stereotypes, is, of course, racist and offensive. It strikes me as odd that saying Glaswegians eat rats because of poverty is not considered offensive. There is no clause in the bill about socio-economic status. However, I think the real reason this isn't considered subject to the law is because it's not associated with a "foreign" culture. Celtic are seen as being "Irish" and Rangers "British" whereas the fans singing this fit comfortably into a cuddly "Scottish" vision to many.

In case it's not clear, I'm not advocating singing any of these songs. I'm advocating the freedom of speech, and any laws that are introduced being clear and predictable in their application, and that the law should apply to everyone, not just football fans. It should be about protecting people from violence, or the threat of violence, and not about "offence". If taken strictly, this law would outlaw a host of Beatles songs, "Free Nelson Mandela", and "Waterloo" by Abba (I'm not clear on Waterloo Sunset). Obviously, it won't applied in that way, but individual police officers will be able to apply well or badly according to their own prejudices.