| Dear Voornaam, It seems like a long time ago that the contentious Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act was passed by MSPs. Indeed it was in March 2021 that its passage was guided by Humza Yousaf, then justice secretary. The legislation will create a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, matching a similar offence based on race that has been on the statute book for decades. But concerns remain over the potential criminalisation of free expression, and, after the government announced it would be law from April 1, the row has exploded again. The concerns also now centre on enforcement by an already over-stretched Police Scotland, whether officers and public actually understand the law, and how the reports from "third party reporting centres" - which yesterday we revealed included a sex shop and a mushroom farm - will work. Today we hear from the Scottish Police Federation which fears people could be wrongly charged under the new legislation because officers are “unprepared”. David Kennedy, the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), told The Scotsman the online training packages that officers had undertaken were “just not going to be good enough” You can read the latest here Breaking news today as former health secretary Michael Matheson was found to have breached two sections of the MSPs' code of conduct over his £11k iPad bill. The story is developing and being updated at scotsman.com We will not see the full report for some time but opposition parties have already said he should now quit as an MSP. Meanwhile, the strip which will be worn by the Scotland team for the upcoming Euros campaign has been revealed. Opinion is perhaps divided to say the least at the latest offering. See what you think yourself here. Have a great evening Alan You should have seen an email notification from us, telling you I'll be sending the Scotsman's letter from the editor via a different mailing list. That change will happen from Monday March 18, so if you haven't signed on to the new list yet, please do before then. I'd hate to lose you! Here's the link to the sign up page - just choose the Letter from The Editor option. | 