Hate is wrong, but it should not be criminal

Hate is just emotion, however distasteful the comment, whomever the target. It should not be prosecutable, unless it becomes incitement or violence, says Margaret Hickey

‘You f***king Catholic toe-rag’ sounds like hate speech, but I doubt if the person to whom it was directed, Catholic journalist and columnist, David Quinn, is campaigning for hate crime legislation. Conservative commentators like Quinn get long, snaking threads of hostile, hateful comment online, but also on public transport, in bars, and on the street, where this particular taunt was shouted.