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Britain
Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool
2007-11-23
By Thomas Harding, Lucy Cockcroft and Brendan Carlin
Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 23/11/2007



Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.

The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.

The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be "named and shamed".

"These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press," he said. "It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again."

It comes after calls for the public to do more to welcome home troops back from tours of duty and to recognise the bravery of those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.

The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.

One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.
So did they, you heartless skank.

It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre.

The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.

Charles Murrin, 79, a Navy veteran who saw the incident, said: "The woman said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays to come in the pool and they don't. I spoke to the instructor in the changing room afterwards and he was livid."

It is not the first time that Headley Court neighbours have been accused of poor behaviour.

Interestingly, Surrey was the site of the Martian invaders' initial landing in H.G. Wells's original War of the Worlds and Leatherhead was one of the places they destroyed with their heat rays and poison gas.
/Just saying

There was uproar earlier this year after residents objected to planning permission to convert a home into a six-suite hostel for injured soldiers' families to stay in. The local council later approved the building work.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are disappointed that a small number of people objected to the closure of swimming lanes so that patients of Headley Court could use them."

The incident comes weeks after the Help For Heroes appeal was launched to raise £5 million to build a full-size pool and gym at the centre.

Labour will today aim to repair its battered reputation with the Armed Forces by offering all military veterans priority NHS treatment, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The concession, ordered by the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, will be available to the estimated 4.8 million ex-servicemen and women, sources said last night.

I wholeheartedly endorse Admiral Murrin's call for the vile creature's name to be published.


Posted by:Angique Gonque2974

#14  This differs from bull-shit like Scott Beauchamp's tales in that the Telegraph gives specific data that are subject to verfication. It is also a reputable publication, not a lefty bullshit rag, and its intended audience is not composed of glue-sniffing trustafarians and Che-buttboys.
The Leatherhead rec center is a real place and some of the eyewitnesses are pushing hard to have the perps named in public.
If that smells like BS, it's because all that MSM bong water has corrupted your olfactory lobes.
Posted by: Angique Gonque2974   2007-11-23 20:04  

#13  Now soldiers are disciplined. Very few will DO anything if they are spit on by some worthless hunk of shit. There is a strong feeling among most of them, that to beat the snot of the dirtbag would somehow dishonor the uniform.

Plus they probably would rather avoid having their careers end precipitously.
Posted by: lotp   2007-11-23 17:22  

#12  I have an idea that will both help America and allow the oh-so-precious Brits to cleanse themselves of the undesired presence of military personnel. Some of our smarter presidential candidates are talking about a long overdue expansion of the armed forces, especially the Army and Marine Corps. We can add to the available manpower pool by granting immediate Green Card eligibility to any serving or recently-discharged British military personnel, quotas depending on our forces' manpower needs (I imagine higher numbers for ex-Army or Royal Marines, lower for RAF/RN types). Serve a hitch in our Armed Forces, get front-of-the-line eligibility for US Citizenship and the sincere thanks of a grateful adoptive nation.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)   2007-11-23 16:44  

#11  LOL smellz like BS
Posted by: Thomas Woof   2007-11-23 13:13  

#10  We all need a strong social sanction, of the kind that used to exist in society.

What would the response from the public have been if when these women were whining, if another woman had left the crowd, walked up to them, and slapped them across the face until their noses bled?

Well, in Britain, who knows. But in America, in most of the country, the public would support it.

And this is important. We all should ask ourselves and others the question: If we are out in public, and some scumball starts not only ranting against our soldiers, but tries to oppress them, individually or collectively, what should we do?

Now soldiers are disciplined. Very few will DO anything if they are spit on by some worthless hunk of shit. There is a strong feeling among most of them, that to beat the snot of the dirtbag would somehow dishonor the uniform.

Which means it is up to us, the public, to do it on their behalf. This is because it is OUR fight, too. The creep isn't attacking the soldier as a person. They are attacking their uniform, as a symbol of our nation. No different at all than burning a US flag in contempt and hatred.

It is open season on such people.

In their puny little minds, were the soldier to fight back, then they, the creep, could play victim, and pretend that the soldier represents "the government oppressing the people."

But if someone in the crowd, a civilian, beats him until he bleeds, it is the social sanction. It is the public telling the shitbird that he is wrong. That he is the oppressor, and that they, the public, won't stand for it.

That the public supports the uniform, and the people who wears them. And the turdball can go to hell.

And any time, and any place in the future, when the worthless hunk of stool does it again, he can expect more of the same, from "WE, the people".
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-11-23 13:04  

#9  Ah, that is the UK! This escaped me when I read it at first; I must say this somehow surprized me, because I thought this was in the USA, adn this clashed with the good welcomes made to soldiers in airplanes and the likes. Sadly, this doesn't really surprize me for the UK, and I'm not an anti-britons type, it's just there's been many examples already of the PC/societal decay in which that once-proud country is mirred into.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2007-11-23 13:00  

#8  This rather turns one of Scott Beauchump's favorite tales of the left on it's head. What's next? Rosie running over stray dogs for sport?
Posted by: Angung Bourbon9497   2007-11-23 12:59  

#7  Sadly, the flagship nation of what is left of the Old World Western Civilization, is going down the toilet at breakneck speed. Hardly a whimper left in them. Sad to see, really sad to watch the decline in my lifetime. A cautionary tail not even noted in the last best hope of mankind.... we are too absorded in finding out what the mopes did to Natalie Holloway!
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2007-11-23 12:43  

#6  I second #5. The Brits have lost their wits.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-11-23 11:11  

#5  The answer is simple. Close the pool -- possibly the building -- to all others when the soldiers arrive, reopen it to the public after they leave. And post on the doors, the phone message, and the web site that it is because of these named women that this was done. A single naming in a newspaper report isn't nearly enough for such vile behaviour, especially in such an upscale community as Surrey, where they only read the Guardian and the Times anyway. Let there long be clucking at dinner parties over the inconvenience these women have caused everyone else by saying such things.
Posted by: trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving   2007-11-23 10:51  

#4  Normally, I am virulently opposed to all violence against women. In this case I'm willing to make an exception. This hag needs a beat down so severe that when it's over, only her hair doesn't hurt.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-11-23 10:06  

#3  The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.

The soldiers paid plenty to enable these idiots to enjoy freedoms. These "whiners" making the complaint should have been thrown out of the pool for being morons. Shouldn't be allowed to play in the gene pool.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-11-23 10:00  

#2  The last of England.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-11-23 09:19  

#1  It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre

Of course, it's always in the name of the Children[tm].

Societies and governments are organized for and by the adults. We value the children, but they can not be the final arbiters of civilization. Once again the infantilization of our society by the usual suspects.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-11-23 09:04  

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