It seems the blogosphere is picking this hoo-hah up. Here’s democracyforum…..and here’s moneysavingexpert.com….and here’s accommodationtips by Angry_Soldier…..and….here’s Tom Jackson online….and it seems that the poor bastards who own the hotel have really shot themselves in the foot. I would not be surprised in it’s in the Daily Mail and the Sun by now. An unwise thing to do, if I was running that business, since there are still, even in 2008, enough people who know how to type and who would be incensed by this.
And here’s the Wondering Brit. And even the BBC, the bought-and-paid-for Stalinist trumpeters of anti-liberal leftism. Oh, shit.
Oh dear dear dera, and here’s another one.
Things look bad for the poor place. So….here’s the post!
And, no, I am NOT pleased in a sort of schadenfreude-ish sort of way either – it reflects badly on our country and our people.
David Davis (not that one)
It seems that, with a titanic battle going on for the fate of Western Civilisation, it is “company policy” for this outfit not to accept “military personnel” as paying guests. Here is a story in the Torygraph which angered me just now.
While a hotel or a chain is of course someone’s property, like most things, and therefore while the owner(s) ought to be able to decide who they will and will not accept money from, it does seem rather, well, leftist and therefore institutionally-ungrateful to do this, to a poor young man, just back from putting his own life on the line philosphically-speaking, for the very people who are refusing him.
And late at night on a Sunday too. How low can you get? the poor bugger spent the night in his car. Probably more comfortable anyway than some leftist-leaning rooming-house in Woking.
We at the Libertarian Alliance do disagree with each other about the strategic or moral rightness, or not, of the various wars into which this stalinist set of gangsters in Westminster government has plunged us. Sean Gabb takes the view in general that, if no vital UK interest is at stake, then we ought not to be involved. I can see his point much of the time. I take the view that Anglosphere nations cannot, and must not, in an imperfect and still largely unlibertarian world, avoid going to war for the vital interests of other people.
It is our duty as civilised individuals, either to get coalitions together to abolish things like slavery (AND inside other “states” or “jurisdictions”, not just on the High Seas, which we ought of course to police properly as this is merely a minimal symptom of rationality), or pre-capitalist-barbarism-suppported-by-tyranny-and aggression, against clearly unwilling and wretched populations.
While there is a supply of young chaps like this soldier, who do what they do, then the least we ought to expect from businesses is some clear statement of their beliefs – if they have some reason either to “conscientiously object” to having soldiers on their premises, or if they think that such riff-raff will lower the tone of the establishment, or trash the place. I’m not so far aware that this latter is a problem, so are hotels facing it yet?
We just needed to know either way, and there would have been no problem. The poor squaddie would have gone somewhere else without complaint. Then, the stalinist set of gangsters in Westminster government can come out, if it dares to, with some regulation or other “preventing discrimination against members of the armed forces, in today’s vibrant multicultural society in Britain”.
But it won’t, will it.
All it would have taken was a notice outside – “No military personnel – in or out of uniform”. Job done!
(Why can I NEVER type the word “soldiers” right the first time, without internally spoonerising the letters?)
Afterthought: I wonder if they’d have turned away Gen. Sir “Mike” Jackson, or the Chief of Imperial Defence Staff – or whatever that office is now called?
[…] September, 2008 by landedunderclass David Davis, at the Libertarian Alliance, is outraged at this story about a member of the Armed Forces who was denied accomodation by an […]
My sentiments exactly, though I used language more suited to the Devil’s Kitchen.
I support our armed forces whilst totally denouncing the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Think you may have fallen into a New Labour spin trap here. The particular hotel is situated over the only (that I know about) night club in Woking next to a row of pubs. It has always amazed me that anyone, who was interested in a night’s sleep, would stay there.
It is by far more likely that the hotel has a policy based on past experience of squadies on R & R. I would guess the policy pre-dates even the glorious days of this Labour government. ( Could be wrong – but no one seems to know and the hotel have probably been advised this is a no win situation and to keep their heads down. )
Its not uncommon for pubs and such to have a no military ban or for the military themselves to have such a ban on their people – all unrelated to politics but based on keeping the peace.
Based on this particular story the soldier concerned deserves a grovelling apology from the hotel who should have made their policy and the reasons for it clear, however I see the hand of the Labour spin machine behind this. It has allowed a Labour MP and defence minister to make pro-military sounding noises at zero cost (just the sort of announcement they love – like wondering round in your uniform), when paying for new transport aircraft that work, body armour or mine prof vehicles is just too much trouble for them like also sending the PM over to great a few of the coffins that now regularly return from foreign parts.
Strike this hotel from my list of places to visit. I would rather sleep in my car (oops sorry that’s been done) Wrong decision on absolutely every level. They have made their bed (presumably) and can now sleep in it. (pun intended) Let the free market decide their fate…
‘fraid the good corporal being refused is nothing new.I was in the forces back in the ’70’s & ’80’s.Loads of pubs were ‘off limits ‘ back then ( could n’t afford hotels so their policies never came into q.) . When the firemen went on strike I was required to man the pumps in B’ham – we were barred from whole areas of that fair city. Given the newsreel version of events after the falklands conflict you might have thought we received an US style returning heroes welcome from hostelries around the country but I don’t remember things changing much . I just remember having quiet pints and keeping my head down. ‘course it was different back then ; you didn’t have to produce ID every 30 seconds .The irony here is that , if my recent experience of hotels is typical ,most of the staff at the Metro are probably illegals anyway.
i agree 100% lets all avoid this hotel and set a limit for anyone who decides to treat our serving soldiers this way!!. As for it being they may have had bad experiences with squaddies im sorry for them but many rugby and football teams are just as bad and yet in this country they are hailed as gods …. remind me what do they do for the country .. oh thats right sweet FA. our soldiers risk their lives and their familys to go away and help another country only to be treated like scum…… lets all boycott the metro hotel and i pray they go broke.
I never know that it would get this sort of anger generated.
All the poor bastards at the Hotel had to do, if it really mattered, was to put up a notice outside that said “no soldiers welcome here, either in or out of uniform”. If you was a soldier, would you then go inside? I think not.
They could have saved themselves so much trouble and aggro, and we bloggers so much time, when there is still RUSSIA to “do”.
Afghanistan? Pah!
I am disgusted at the way the solder was treated at the metro, and I will make a point of never of
never using this hotel and I hope all friends of mine will follow.The manager was quick to blame the receptionist, which was a load of poppycock he ought sacket, along with the receptionist.
It’s all very well to blame the poor receptionist.
But what good will that do? He/she probably believed what he/she himself/herself was saying. That is the real tragedy.
The hotel is f****d anyway. So what? It’s just a hotel, in a chain, which will probably not “go down” as a result. As Stalin said, “one death is not very important”. Well, there you are: we too have been corrupted by the sleights of the enemy which we face. A terrible and inestimably powerful one, which even infects hotel reception areas, even when unsupervised by beneficent management.
We have to “do” Russia, before “Russia” does us!
Anybody here listening?
amendment to the above
he should be sacked, along with the receptionist
I hope they lose so much custom over their
disgraceful treatment of this wounded lad that the metro will go down the pan
does any one have the e-mail address of the company or nos the website address
I do not think that we here ought to do any special thing to make the lives of the poor sad bastards who have been running this hotel any worse than they are now.
The people whom this soldier has been fighting would do such things. They would kill the receptionist by stoning, or even the manager, who probably did not know anyway, and who might even have been asleep. We ought not to do such things, other than saying that it would be foolhardy to stay at that place in Woking.
The Market it very beneficent as an instirurion for moral regulation. People instinctively know what is good and right, and will act accordingly.
one hopes that this hotel actually suffers poor trade over the next week or so? There is no excuse for discrimination of this nature to anyone regardless of creed or colour or JOB, the RAF should drop a 1000lb bomb on the place then they would have something to moan at?
im ex raf from 80s and 90s and even today am passionate about this country and our armed forces even tho theres jobsworths and lefties screwing it up. this hotel is a disgrace and this should even fall into the hate crime category cos thats what would happen if anyone turned away foreigners.
Here is a site to Offset this hotel!
http://www.offsetx.com/offsets/TheMetroHotel/index.php
[…] Metro Hotel Woking soldier … Notice to all human beings: don’t stay at the Metro Hotel,… It seems the blogosphere is picking this hoo-hah up. Here’s democracyforum…..and here’s […] […]
Morning! Liked the posting but I can’t pretend to agree with your politics, so please accept this comment as an politics-agnostic on 😉
Anyway.. regarding this matter – just substitute “undertaker” for “soldier” and apply the hotel’s logic – it still doesn’t make sense, and as far as I can tell, the hotel/chain hasn’t published any publicly-visible guidelines to say which occupations it finds acceptable. Maybe if they’d done this the whole thing could have been avoided! I do get the impression though that they’ll trot out the old “management reserves the right to refuse admission” argument.
What would be *really* interesting if Corporal Stringer had been one of the very few muslim service personnel and the same thing had happened. Maybe there’s still time …
@mike evans.. see my posting at http://www.mildewhall.com/BigBlogArchive.php?2844
I hope your lousy company goes broke
I hope that all booking you have are canncelled and that who ever gave the order that military personall must be refused accomadation on your hotelbe sent imediatly to Afgainistan .
Your company is a utter discrace both to the USA and the rest of the ;free’ world.
Of course it won’t go broke, bill d.
It’s just a hotel, and it’s in a “chain” of hotels – time will erase all this stuff which we have been gassing about, and it will be soon, as if this all had never been. Beaches, sand, footprints, tide, all that stuff. Gone.
Cpl Tomos Stringer I am sure has already moved on – that’s all that matters in the end, and one day we shall defeat these awful, sad people.
Infrastructure wise Bangalore is developing at quite a rapid pace. Increase of the visits of both tourists and diplomats have substantially increased the quantity and quality of the Bangalore hotels.
it is my understanding the hoel in question is american owned, don,t that just say it all.we can bail america out regarding the gulf war etc but when it comes to accomadating one of our brave boys it,s on your bike mate.anyone who is proud to be british should boycott this lousy dump of a hotel, failingthat just get the army to aim a tank at it,s recepionists.
Paula,
the staff at Woking can’t be American, or not many of them anyway! It was these staff that took the decision not to take this man’s money, and refuse him in such an insulting way.
The enemies of civilisation from whom we have most to fear lie chiefly at home in Britain. i have proposed for them “the Udenopticon”, on this site, a few posts up from this one.
Very sad. Does anyone have any details about the American Company that allowed this???? I would like to make sure that I NEVER give them any business until this situation is resolved to the family’s satisfaction. Along with a guarantee that this never will happen to another freedom protecting soldier in their hotels. Here in Texas, I think we would have already flooded the parent company with complaints and cancellations. This type of discrimination is not acceptable for any reason. If the hotel was worried about rowdy behavior after drinking then it should have posted drinking limits and refused to serve ALL drunk patrons not turn military personal away ‘from the inn’. Shame on American Amusements for allowing this to go on in their hotel.
As I said, it’s probable that no Americans were involved in this sad affair. Most likely it was an over-leftist, officious duty-manager, or even his junior staff, who decided to make a “protest”, as an alternative to being important as opposed merely to feeling that way.
Or perhaps he/she was pissed off at being rejected for the next round of faux-slebs with personality-disorders in “Big Brother”.