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Blind man's bluff

29/07/09 - 2 comments

The Express and Echo seem to have once again backed the wrong horse by running a front-page story about a blind man who was refused service at a Wetherspoon's pub for wearing a football shirt.

The problem with this story seems to be that Wetherspoon's have a long established rule of 'no football shirts' in their establishments (at the discretion of the individual landlords) and will refuse service to anyone wearing one.

Michael Gardner, 61, walked in to the new Chevalier Inn (where Hog's Head used to be) wearing an Exeter City shirt at lunch time and was (from what we can gather from the very one sided article) asked politely to leave.

The fact that he is blind has nothing to do with the decision. Back in 2006 a two-year-old with its parents were asked to remove it's tiny football shirt.

A spokesman for Wetherspoon's has said: “We can understand their disappointment but we fully back the decision not to allow anyone wearing a football shirt — Exeter or anyone else — into the pub.

“We cannot go on to then discriminate according to age, as that would raise all sorts of problems.”

A majority of the posts on the Echo's website seem to agree with this sentiment.

Some people have said that if you don't like the policy you should vote with your feet, after all there are plenty more pubs in the city. Others are firmly supporting the ban which applies to everyone, regardless of their age or abilities.

Most seem to be questioning the newsworthyness (Is that even a word? - Ed) of a pub enforcing it's own rules, however blindly, and whether this the most important issue facing citizens of Exeter today? Is it really worth a full front-page headline?

We'll leave you with a few of the comments from the Echo:

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