I'm getting the feeling that some folks in the UK think free speech is fine unless the speaker pisses people off.

People incite hatred, for whatever reason, all the time. Sometimes, it's based on race or religion and sometimes it's one person who hates somebody else and tries to get others on their side. None of it's illegal and I really believe people aren't stupid enough to fall for it. Even if they do, without action, hatred mostly hurts the hater.

It's the action that's important over here. Hate based crimes, and those are crimes no matter what the criminals' motives are. Incitement to commit a crime is illegal, whether it's hate based, greed-based, or revenge-based.