Putting a kilt on Pavlik Morozov

For those who were spared my kind of childhood, Pavlik Morozov was a Stalinist saint, perhaps the most worshipped youngster in my youth.

Without going into too much detail, that 13-year-old peasant denounced his father to a GPU murder squad and was consequently lynched by his surviving family. The story is largely apocryphal, but that’s not the point.

The point is that all Soviet children were brainwashed to see Pavlik as their role model. He was canonised for arranging his loyalties in the right order: Stalin first, communism second, everything else way down the list. Such devotion put his face on thousands of posters and stamps, his statues on hundreds of pedestals and his name into millions of immature hearts.

Now Scotland’s Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, the blood of kilted, sporraned warriors coursing through his veins, has taken the fight inspired by Pavlik to the ideological enemies of the Scottish people.

Inciting hatred in conversations over the dinner table, he announced, must be prosecuted under Scotland’s hate crime law. Mr Yousaf posed two questions he doubtless considered rhetorical: “Are we comfortable giving a defence to somebody whose behaviour is threatening or abusive which is intentionally stirring up hatred against, for example, Muslims? Are we saying that that is justified because that is in the home?”

The answers are no and yes. No, intentionally stirring up hatred against, for example, Muslims isn’t nice, although something in me whispers “what goes around comes around”. And yes, if such unworthy sentiments are expressed in the privacy of one’s home, they are justified legally, if not necessarily morally.

But even morally, prosecuting such sentiments is infinitely more reprehensible than the sentiments themselves. For, if uttered in private, how will those incendiary speeches (jokes? toasts? oblique allusions?) become known to the authorities?

Suppose for the sake of argument that Mr and Mrs Angus McMorozov sit down to dinner with little Paul, whom they affectionately call Pavlik. And somewhere between the haggis and the deep-fried Mars bars (sorry about crude ethnic stereotyping), Mr McMorozov expresses his dismay over having a Muslim as Scotland’s Justice Secretary.

Let’s assume that this statement can indeed be construed as inciting hatred. Let’s also assume that Mrs McMorozov shares her husband’s appalling biases. And let’s further assume that the McMorozovs’ dining room isn’t bugged, although these days this isn’t a safe assumption to make.

So how can the authorities find out about the crime committed? One way only: little Pavlik McMorozov must shop his faither.

To be fair, it’s not just Scotland. Our Football Association has issued a new slogan telling people to report racism (however loosely defined). There are hoardings in London reminding the populace to denounce benefit cheats, tax evaders and presumably anyone else they feel like denouncing.

I maintain that the moral and social damage caused by fostering a Pavlik Morozov culture of snitching is much more appalling than the misdeeds to be reported, be that cheating on benefits, evading taxes or even inciting hatred of Scotland’s justice secretaries.

The country I grew up in amply vindicates this observation. Take my word for it: that’s not a good example to follow.