What I meant Ell is that we have free speech in this country, but you and the authorities seem to think this should not apply in football stadiums. Why the exclusion? With regards to Sharp's kid, I wasn't aware of the situation, but it seems you're mixing the moral & the legal aspects, are you not? Perfectly legal to chant whatever it was, disgusting or otherwise, but if I've understood what happened correctly, then if it's not highly immoral, then it's most certainly of the poorest taste. But not illegal.
What is the law on free speech? Under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, “everyone has the right to freedom of expression” in the UK. But the law states that this freedom “may be subject to formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society”. Those restrictions may be “in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary”. What is the law on hate speech? A number of different UK laws outlaw hate speech. Among them is Section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986 (POA), which makes it an offence for a person to use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause, another person harassment, alarm or distress”. This law has been revised over the years to include language that is deemed to incite “racial and religious hatred”, as well as “hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation” and language that “encourages terrorism”.
At the risk of being dubbed a 'snowflake'. But why the **** would any grown-up adult, many if not all of whom have lost friends and loved ones would want to chant something like that to anyone? Why then do some get the hump when other teams sing about Istanbul?
It just seems that our society takes offence to everything, an obsession to protect the ones that probably do not need it. An obsessive PC world where the right to have an opinion has been so diluted it's just a waste of time. I was in my car earlier listening to a rap program, a bit of an education, every other word was N###### or Bitch But because they are ermm black thay can say it? Maybe the PC police should produce a dictionary of words we can and can't say. Anyway rant over **** 'em all ****'em all........ MOT
Nice thread Shako. I'd like to know who it is making all these PC rules at football. For instance - why is it acceptable to call the ref a cnut (nobody bats an eyelid), but as soon as you put black Infront of cnut, world war.fooking 3 has started. One person allegedly racially abused a Chelsea player at Tottenham (same Chelsea that courted the hardore NF for 30+years) and it was 2nd story on the news and front page of The Mirror FFS
Having researched the alleged sectarian chants aimed at James McClean the consensus in football, as an industry, is that it's totally unacceptable. That's from the FA, PFA, clubs, managers, players etc etc...widely reported across all media outlets using terms such as vile, sick, totally unjustifiable, hate crime and discriminatory. Interestingly opinions on here seem to be in stark contrast. Why is that so ? My personal view is that whilst it's good this forum allows freedom of expression there's definitely a certain generational aspect at play when it comes to certain topics. Or we could just say that the majority hold views which belong in another century...whichever you prefer.