Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

This is disgusting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7596798.stm

Yes it is, he comes from very near here, Mary. Did you hear his mother on Today this morning? Tomos asked to speak to the Duty Manager and was told that would be impossible. Surely that is the pre-eminent duty of a Duty Manager to be available?

I AM ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED !

Especially as the hotel in question is only half an hours drive from me.

I feel like going over to Woking and telling them EXACTLY what I think of their company policies.

Wait a minute ! I'm in Woking in a couple of weeks for a girls footy match. An ideal opportunity, me-thinks !!!!

The morality or otherwise of Britain's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is a legitimate subject for debate.

However that decision was not made by ordinary service personnel and they should not be discriminated against for carrying out their duties.

The name of this hotel is in the public domain. One hopes all right thinking people will avoid it like the plague should they ever have a need to visit or stay in Woking.

I find hitting businesses in the pocket is far more effective than appealing to the consciences of directors, proprietors or managers as invariably they don't have them!

If you read the reports on it (THE HOTEL) on various pages it doesn't look like the best place to stay anyway. And he wasn't a squaddie going to get 'tanked up' (read, any perSon under the age of 25 nowadays) but a chap in civvies booking a room and when asked fOr ID showed his Army ID. The Radio 4 interview is on the linked page by the wAY.

J.R. wrote:I AM ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED !

Especially as the hotel in question is only half an hours drive from me.

I feel like going over to Woking and telling them EXACTLY what I think of their company policies.

Wait a minute ! I'm in Woking in a couple of weeks for a girls footy match. An ideal opportunity, me-thinks !!!!

GO, JR!

Think I'll pop in and ask to speak to the duty manager and tell him I hope the next extremist bomb goes off in his hotel, then I'll pop back and ask him how he feels about our armed forces now.

Do they have a legal right to exclude people from public premsies?

Alan P5age wrote:[It isn't the best hotel in the world, but if they have had trouble before with service men misbehaving and scandalising the other guests then you can understand a little why they would act like this.

In my experience in towns and cities where there is a large Military presence, the soldiers and sailors are invariably as much sinned against as sinning: groups of local lads showing off how hard they are by taking on Servicemen are just as likely to be the cause of trouble as the soldiers themselves.

I do hope JR managed a visit and apprised the manager of his views.

Alan P5age wrote:

englishangel wrote:If you read the reports on it (THE HOTEL) on various pages it doesn't look like the best place to stay anyway. And he wasn't a squaddie going to get 'tanked up' (read, any perSon under the age of 25 nowadays) but a chap in civvies booking a room and when asked fOr ID showed his Army ID. The Radio 4 interview is on the linked page by the wAY.

I was not implying he was going to get "tanked up" himself, I was merely suggesting a reason for his being turned away. I am not even sure whether such bans are still up and around (having spent some 15 years away from Guildford) but there was an issue with Service men because of a spate of drunken brawls, damage to property etc. during the 80's.

It isn't the best hotel in the world, but if they have had trouble before with service men misbehaving and scandalising the other guests then you can understand a little why they would act like this.

A lot of pubs in this area also exclude travellers for the same reason.

I didn't think you did mean that, I am old enough to remember when pubs/hotels banned all sorts of people, and servicemen in uniform, but I thought those days were long gone.

I have a son whose favorite garb is camoflage, various, and he has certainly never had any trouble and he looks like this.

I don't think we've heard the last of this.

There has just been a big piece on it on the local BBC TV lunch-time news.

Incidently, I live near to R.A.F. Headley Court which is an absolutely wonderful forces re-hab centre, much in need at the moment because of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Recently, they applied for planning permission to alter a house they own in Ashtead, (near Leatherhead), for use as accomodation for familys of visiting parents and relatives of wounded servicemen.

Some NIMBY, posh snobbish tory tw@ts who lived in the same road actually had the nerve to object.

Thankfully, they were over-ruled !

CHAZ wrote:Do they have a legal right to exclude people from public premsies?

The owner of a private business can exclude whomever he wants, so long as it's not for a reason prohibited by law.

So far as I'm aware, there's no law in the UK that prevents discrimination against soldiers.

ETA: I don't mean to suggest that I approve of the hotel's actions. We don't have all the facts, but it sounds like a poor decision. It's not in the nature of companies to admit when they get something wrong, but I'd be surprised if they don't re-think their policy after this.

"I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,The publican 'e up an sez, "We serve no red-coats here."

ben ashton wrote:"I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,The publican 'e up an sez, "We serve no red-coats here."

Spot on Ben. I think Kipling has the last word on this matter.

I just joined the TA in London, and it was hilarious when we stopped for fast food on the way to a recent training weekend. The minibus pulls up, out pile the recruits not looking too different from the pictures below, SA80s visible in the van, and it was interesting to watch the way the general public responded. The kids, outside and inside, visibly amazed by the "Army people"... the two shady-looking men sitting in a car next to us, who abruptly drove off...
That certainly was how I would hope people would respond to the British military.
Maybe the publican has something to hide.