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No room at the inn for injured soldier

Thu Sep 04 02:38PM

A British soldier on leave after being injured in Afghanistan has been refused a room in a Surrey hotel just because he is in the army.

The BBC has reported that Corporal Tomos Stringer, 23, from Gwynedd in Wales, was visiting an injured friend near Woking when he was turned away from the Metro Hotel.

Corporal Stringer, of 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, was asked to provide a form of identification to book the room and when he presented his military pass he was told that it was management policy not to accept Armed Forces as guests.

Stringer, who injured his wrist falling out of a truck while coming under fire in Afghanistan, was forced to spend the night in his car.

He has now returned to Afghanistan but his mother, Gaynor Stringer, was so upset over the way he was treated by the hotel she wrote to MP Hywel Williams.

Mrs Stringer has also voiced her disappointment over how soldiers are treated in Britain compared to in the United States.

"We've been to America and their military get treated like heroes over there. I think it's terrible they [UK Armed Forces] can't even wear their uniform with pride."

Police were called to the hotel Thursday after the hotel's management claimed it had been receiving threatening and abusive phone calls.

A spokesman for Surrey police said: "Officers were called to the scene because of claims of abusive, offensive and threatening phone calls towards the Metro Hotel. We will monitor the calls to see if an offence has occured, if it has then we can trace the calls and further action will be taken."

The Metro Hotel, which is owned by American Amusements Ltd, has issued an apologetic statement saying the incident "was a mistake".

Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth has written to the Metro Hotel management demanding a more detailed explanation.

Comments1321 - 1330 of 1350

Re: robs_rarity (post 1302). .....but not all soldiers are good people - remember Deepcut?? Maybe people should think and look at the bigger picture before they start putting pen to paper and getting all patriotic.
As it happens I remember Deepcut well, I certainly wrote plenty about it in a number of Internet Forums and elsewhere concerning the murders of British Servicemen and a Servicewoman in their own barracks. So no, not all of them are 'nice people' a fact I know from long experience in the British Army. But I also know that stereotyping is wrong too. Like everywhere else rotten apples can be found in any barrel - we have had quite a few posting comments on here. Mindless morons who spew forth garbage while claiming it as factual perhaps need to crawl back to mummy for a nappy change because it's obviously full of brown smelly stuff. Nice to see someone being objective and more realistic that many rob. In general terms soldiers do not see themselves as a hero, they see themselves as doing a job. But it's a job that many of the gutless, spineless wonders posting drivel could not do. As for patriotism, I'm afraid that like almost everything else in Britain these days, it's being used & abused whenever some find it useful.

From adenatlo on Fri Sep 05 11:01AM
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Sadly this attitude towards members of Britains armed forces is nothing new,pick up a copy of Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling and read the poem "Tommy"The least the Metro can do is offer cut price accommodation to any member of theforces at any of there hotels. Dave

From pnodave on Fri Sep 05 12:00PM
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Well

From josephine_lane2003 on Fri Sep 05 01:03PM
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They should be made to pay "compensation" to the soldier. Then find for "discrimination". Everybody else gets more just for being shouted at or tripping over a paving slab. Then close the Hotel............ From an Ex Soldier.

From crazykeith2 on Fri Sep 05 01:35PM
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were are the MP's and human rights people the P.C. gang this was discrimination.
they say it was a mistake. we know thats all spin, the Labor party will not do any thing about it. MP's like to visit our boys and bathe in their glory
now its up to them to back them up
TJ Southport

From tony_joyce2004 on Fri Sep 05 02:34PM
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m.erskin has a problem.Perhaps he should see a head shrink and perhaps get an education.discrimination by definition is unjust!!!!ex R.A.F.

From lesliebowden969 on Fri Sep 05 03:02PM
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What can one say,this is not the first incident involving the military,we have a lot of @#$% people in this country and these are the ones making the headlines,perhaps all these who don't like our military should emigrate to a peaceful place like ZIMBABWE they really make me sick.

From dennis.bryan2 on Fri Sep 05 03:03PM
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CORPORAL STRINGER... IF YOU READ THIS... JUST HANG OUT THERE, MATE. WE ALL BEHIND YOU.
NEXT TIME YOU COME TO ANY HOTELS, WE'LL MAKE SURE THEY TREAT YOU LIKE A KING!!!!
And this goes to any men and women in the armed forces... in ANY COUNTRY!!!

From pangyr on Fri Sep 05 03:07PM
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i am horrified to read this story ,how dare they treat one of our boys like this ,if id of worked at that hotel i would of walked out and taken him to my house and treated him with the respect he deserves, he could of had a beer with my son im sure they would of had a lot to talk about...you see im the mother of a soldier who has served in a war zone how dare that hotel treat him like that im ashamed of them

From hmaura46 on Fri Sep 05 03:33PM
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the staff at this particular hotel should be sacked, without notice and the senior managementforced to explain why such people were employed in the first place...

From franknutt on Fri Sep 05 03:33PM
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