No, This Is Not Illegal Discrimination At All…

A wheelchair-bound woman says she is being discriminated against after she was banned from going inside a Sidcup café…

Quick! Man the barricades, chain yourselves to lampposts, protest at the…

Oh. Hang on.

… for being "smelly".

OK, cancel the protest. This is not covered.

Ms Sawyer, who suffers from spina bifida - a congenital disorder that affects the spinal cord and has left her paralysed from the waist down - says she was told, almost immediately, to get out.

She said : "Basically I went into a cafe, it's one that I always go to except during the summer I've been sitting outside.

"It wasn't great weather so this time I sat inside. I got to my table where I normally sit. I made sure I was out of the way of everyone else.

"Despite this the guy working there, he basically said to me you cannot sit inside because the customers have complained about you.

"I said: 'so you are barring me? That's discrimination' and he said: 'Yes, I am barring you'.

"At this point I did swear, I did call him a w*****. I was quite angry and I expressed my anger."

Ahem.

"I don't feel like I can go back now. I would like to go back but this is a clear case of discrimination. They're doing it because I'm in a wheelchair."

Nope. They’re doing it because you stink.

Now, that might be because you’re in a wheelchair (or more likely, because the care package isn’t adequate to keep you clean, as some commenters suggest) but it doesn't mean that they will face any charges for banning you. They are entitled to, for the sake of the other patrons.

And they know this, and explain it in terms anyone can understand:

A spokesman for the restaurant said: "She wasn't very clean. She had a very bad smell. That was the reason we told her she couldn't sit in the restaurant.

"We have lots of customers in the restaurant. The reason she's not allowed to come inside is because of her very bad smell.

"We offered to put her outside and to serve her there but she came inside. "The restaurant was full. People started to complain."

And sorry, but you have no right to expect people to choke down their food in a miasma of body odour because you are waving the ‘disabled’ card.

H/T: Richard at GoingFastGettingNowhere via email