speaker so that the assembly can go about its business and so those who have been elected can serve the people who have elected them and in order that those items that we can proceed with in the next few weeks can be moved forward, we come here with a can do attitude and a commitment to serve the people who elected us and i hope others do likewise. the dup have said in the press that they will not support the election of a speaker here today. there is, however, still time to reflect on that position, notwithstanding what the former first minister has just said and it s worth remembering when we talk about consent and equality that many of us in this chamber represent people who did not consent to brexit in the first place, and yet we turned up for work. we turned up for work. we also do not all have equality. some in this chamber are more equal than others and myself and my 16 colleagues mvotes will count for a lesson this next
and it s so interesting that the johnson government is saying that about women. they ve just introduced they re just in the process of introducing a new crime concerning the theft of dogs. and the theft of dogs is going to be introduced on the basis that. we have theft legislation. you can prosecute somebody who steals a dog as much as stealing your watch. however, they feel that this is very important because during lockdown, lots of people became very attached to dogs and.and they pay a lot of money for dogs, so they re very valuable now. and so they re saying, there should be a special crime created about the theft of dogs. if you want to hone in on something, like what s happening to women, then you can, even if you ve got some laws around that you can dig around and find, then i think that you have an obligation as a government to do something about it. but there s another potential problem with misogyny as a crime, and it was outlined by the former equalities
symbolic about saying, these behaviours are what are accepted in society and these are not. and that s what the law does it sets the bar on certain kinds of behaviour. so you have to have law that is protective of women and which is basically pointing the finger at those who. .. well, where are the limits of what the law can actually achieve? and i ask that advisedly, because you now head up a scottish government working, sort of, reporting committee that s about to publish a report on the possibility of making misogyny a hate crime. now, this is particular to scotland, but i dare say people listening and watching around the world will be interested in this notion that you can criminalise misogyny. do you believe you can? let me be very clear. hate itself is not a crime. we don t have thought crime. we say that people should be allowed, inside ourforum
politician, victoria atkins. she said we should be very careful about creating laws that inadvertently conflict with the basic principle of equality. she said, if we re to have a hate crime in relation to gender, we need to think very carefully about whether that would apply to the entire population orjust to the half of it that is female, cause, ultimately, she says, remember, women are not a minority and shouldn t be treated as such. that. but she s really, really falling down that great well, that even women who are trained in the law can fall down, which is, you know, we argued for equality. all right, so we want equality between men and women. you don t achieve it byjust saying, let s have equality. you actually have to be very active in trying to ameliorate the terrible things that have happened in the past, which have prevented there being equality. so announcing, let s have equality, and let s tomorrow say that all the laws that apply to men should apply to women too,
and it s so interesting that the johnson government is saying that about women. they ve just introduced, they re just in the process of introducing a new crime concerning the theft of dogs. and the theft of dogs is going to be introduced on the basis that. we have theft legislation. you can prosecute somebody who steals a dog as much as stealing your watch. however, they feel that this is very important because during lockdown, lots of people became very attached to dogs and.and they pay a lot of money for dogs, so they re very valuable now. and so they re saying, there should be a special crime created about the theft of dogs. if you want to hone in on something, like what s happening to women, then you can, even if you ve got some laws around that you can dig around and find, then i think that you have an obligation as a government to do something about it. but there s another potential problem with misogyny as a crime, and it was outlined by the former equalities minister, a conserv