Any thought that JK Rowling would sit back quietly and wait to be threatened with jail and arrested under the SNP’s latest legislative foul-up, known as the Hate Crime (Scotland) Act, was too daft for words.

And so it proved. Faced with the possibility of prosecution under an Act that carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence, the best-selling author didn’t for a second cast caution to the wind. Instead, she sailed straight into a calculated attack against Humza Yousaf’s determination to bring in a raft of new offences which threaten to end freedom of expression over the “trans” issue but which fail to protect women

The resolute defence of her right to speak out about the dangers posed by the new legislation may now spark a…