Bit sad that slagging somebody off is treated like a real crime. A bit more reading on this uncovered this from the Met website ....
"Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but it is equally important that these are reported and recorded by the police."
Why are the police concerned with incidents that are not crimes? Slagging someone's haircut is not a crime so why are they involved?
"Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related."
Evidence is not required. So if anyone, not even just the victim, decides it's hate then it's hate. So I slag his haircut and some non-involved busybody objects then, without any evidence whatsoever, I could be officially involved in a 'hate' incident.