It's time for the SNP to show some humility and accept they got it wrong.

In the Scottish Government's own analysis of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act (or the Football Act for short), there is a graph which shows the time and day when the most arrests are made.

No prizes for guessing the line is fairly steady until the period between noon and four on a Saturday, when it rockets up to a peak before plummeting again.

It seems hardly surprising. It is the Football Act after all and, despite the efforts of television companies, Saturday remains the day when most games kick off.

But it's a troubling example of why the Football Act simply isn't fit for purpose.

Sectarianism in Scotland has existed for more than a hundred years. It has touched so many aspects of our country's history, from our politics to our work places.

The idea that it can be tackled in 90 minutes is nonsense. It's applying the magic sponge to a torn cruciate ligament in the hope the problem will heal itself on its own.

Of course, simply scrapping the Football Act isn't enough. We need to do more to tackle sectarianism in classrooms and communities.

That doesn't gain headlines in the same way as arresting football fans for singing certain songs but it's how we eventually end intolerance in this country.

But while the SNP mounts PR offensives trying to defend the Football Act, they have cut millions of pounds of funding for charities that work on anti-sectarian projects.

As the American vice-president Joe Biden said: "Don't tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."

A quick glance at the SNP budget suggests they don't put too much value in the projects that actually deliver lasting, generational change.

Labour just ran a campaign based on using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to stops the cuts to our schools and local services and specifically protecting the education budget.

That is not a policy we will be changing and can be part of promoting understanding and intolerance in our country.

Likewise, in the aftermath of the EU referendum, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale called for a high-profile campaign along the lines of One Scotland, Many Cultures to reassure EU nationals that they remained welcome in Scotland.

If the great challenge of our time is about open versus closed unity versus isolation, then such a campaign could extend in scope to forms of prejudice such as sectarianism.

Repealing the act is about a more nuanced approach to public policy around prejudice.

In the last year, nearly half of all people charged under the Football Act were 20 or under.

The vast majority of them will be working class. The generation that has the potential to end sectarianism in Scotland for good find themselves effectively targeted by the Football Act.

These are young men for whom the promise of the post-war period - that they would have better living standards than their parents - looks likely to be broken.

All the Football Act does is pile another layer of mistrust, anger and suspicion between these young people and Scotland's establishment.

And for what? For the sake of a cheap headline, by the looks of it. Legislation shouldn't be written to fit headlines in newspapers or 30-second clips on TV bulletins but that has been the approach of the SNP in government, with the Football Act the best example of it.

The last few weeks have delivered a tough assessment of the record of the SNP majority government of 2011- 2016.

Last week, the UK Supreme Court found the controversial Named Person legislation failed some basic legal competencies, while Alistair Bonnington, a former honorary law professor at Glasgow and Nicola Sturgeon's old lecturer, said Scotland was producing the lowest quality legislation in Europe.

Despite the opposition of every other party in parliament, supporters groups, football clubs, legal experts and academics the SNP used their majority to bulldoze through the law so they could brag they were "cracking down on bigots".

Something slightly forgotten in the political whirlwind of the last few months is the SNP have lost their majority in the Scottish Parliament.

There is an opportunity now to undo some of the mistakes they made in arrogance when they had a majority.

The repeal of the Football Act can be the start of period when Holyrood delivers meaningful cross-party policy, rather than slogans and shouting matches.

It will take humility from the SNP but they should swallow their pride, show some humility and simply admit they got it wrong.

A desperate effort to avoid negative headlines for a few days risks alienating a generation of young people, and setting back Scotland's attempt to solve a decades-old problem by years.

Comment by James Kelly. James is Labour MSP for Glasgow. You can make a submission to his proposal to repeal the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act at www.scraptheact.com.