UK has to pass law to stop discrimination against troops?

Discrimination against military to be outlawed
· Shops that ban uniforms will face legal sanctions
· Ministers want more cadet forces in schools

Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian, Tuesday May 20 2008

Shops, hospitals and other public institutions will in future be committing a criminal offence if they refuse to serve armed forces personnel in uniform, ministers announced yesterday.

An offence outlawing discrimination against the wearing of military uniforms is among 40 recommendations designed to promote greater protection and understanding of the armed forces. They include promoting cadet forces in schools.

The proposals are contained in a report, National Recognition of our Armed Forces, ordered by Gordon Brown and drawn up by Quentin Davies, the former Conservative MP who switched to Labour last year. Davies called yesterday for a "new era of greater openness and public involvement of the [armed] services".

The armed forces minister, Bob Ainsworth, said the government was engaged in discussions about how the new law could be introduced, since discrimination against personnel in military uniform was "totally and utterly unacceptable".

The report cited a number of cases of discrimination, including a Harrods security assistant in 2006 preventing an army officer from entering the store after a Remembrance Day ceremony.

Staff at Birmingham airport last year told troops returning from Afghanistan to change into civilian clothes, and troops passing through Edinburgh airport were directed away from public areas.

Patients from the armed forces rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Surrey were subjected to abuse by members of the public at a swimming pool, and abuse levelled at RAF personnel in parts of Peterborough led to restrictions on their wearing uniform in public.

Davies proposed the appointment of a "cadet ambassador" to liaise with schools.

Yesterday's report noted that of 6,400 secondary schools in the UK, only 260 had combined cadet forces and all but 60 were grammar and independent schools. However, there must be "no sense of compulsion at all", Davies said.
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