Watch the modern-day witch hunt doesn't come for you next

The Spanish Inquisition is alive and well.

In Scotland there’s a campaign to pardon those accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in centuries past.

Yet a modern form of the practice is flourishing with the unchallenged acceptance that any and all utterings and accusations made by those with whom we agree and sympathise must be true and never robustly queried.

Such a reaction may be emotionally understandable.

But it’s intellectually incontinent and a threat to civilised society.

Image shows the writer Jim Spence next to a quote: "In our current rush to judge folk without establishing ALL the facts, we’re in danger of regressing to the dark ages and the return of the ducking stool."

In some traditional and social media we have the modern equivalent of the old Wild West hanging posses, ready to lynch folk on the basis of uncorroborated evidence and hearsay.

There are plenty of serious topics that deserve serious discussion and solemn investigation.

But sadly that’s all too often absent today.

Opinion matters more than information in the modern-day witch hunt

In recent weeks we’ve seen an 83 year old woman accused of racism and the well-known Scots actor James McAvoy indict his fellow Glaswegians of vile racist and sexist abuse towards his film colleagues.

Plenty has been written about the conversation between the Queen’s 83-year-old lady in waiting Lady Susan Hussey and Ngozi Fulani, the 61-year-old who founded Sistah Space, the only domestic abuse charity in the UK that caters specifically for women and girls of African and Caribbean heritage.

Lady Susan Hussey and the Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster outside Westminster Abbey. — Was social media reaction to Lady Susan Hussey, seen here with the Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster, more like a modern-day witch hunt than an attempt at reasoned debate?

Depending on whether you’re open or closed minded you may have already decided whether this was ignorant racism or a conversation with an elderly woman from a rarified social background, which took a wrong turn.

However, Hussey was subjected to the same kind of instant justice that terrified young women accused of sorcery in centuries past.

She might not have been ducked under water to prove her guilt.

But without a chance to give her side of the story, a partial, one-sided account was instantly relayed to the nation.

And with no one hearing the other side of the coin, she was thus condemned as culpable.

Glasgow accusations still unclear

Last week the actor James McAvoy said his black film colleagues had suffered racial and other vile abuse while they were in Glasgow.

James McAvoy has claimed women of colour in the cast in Cyrano de Bergerac were racially abused on a daily basis when the show was performed in Glasgow. He revealed he was "shocked" and "saddened" by the experience https://t.co/Wyko9XIpEr pic.twitter.com/kqUSwCbVGN

— The Stage (@TheStage) November 30, 2022

To suggest that Scotland is exempt from the sort of brutish behaviour which despoils societies worldwide would be to indulge in nationalistic exceptionalism.

But other than his broad brush tarring of Glasgow I’m still no wiser as to the actual charges against his fellow citizens.

This is no defence of any halfwits and bigots who need to be dragged screaming and kicking into civilisation.

However why the actor should be shocked that discrimination might be prevalent in a city which is one third Catholic (he himself is) and where there’s been long standing religious discrimination against that portion of Glasgow’s residents, is surprising in itself.

Evidence and corroboration are crucial

At least in the Hussey-Fulani case we were “treated” to an account – albeit it unverified – of the actual words and phrases supposedly used [Buckingham Palace later released a statement which included an apology from Lady Susan Hussey for the “unacceptable and deeply regrettable” comments].

photo shows Ngozi Fulani standing behind Camilla, Queen Consort, in a crowded reception at Buckingham Palace. — Ngozi Fulani attended a reception held by Camilla, Queen Consort, at Buckingham Palace. Image: Kin Cheung/AP/Shutterstock.

It’s undoubtedly uncomfortable to hear such grim stuff repeated.

But, just as in court cases where guilt and innocence must be proven to established legal standards, it’s vitally important when reputations are at stake.

It’s why I’m also uncomfortable with suggestions in recent times that rape trials in Scotland should dispense with trial by jury.

Rape is heinous. And in terms of punishments handed out for the guilty I’m on the side of the hang ‘em and flog em brigade. But only after the strictest standards of corroboration and evidence have been met.

In our current rush to judge folk without establishing ALL the facts, we’re in danger of regressing to the dark ages and the return of the ducking stool.

Just hope that you’re not placed on it one day.