Tommy Robinson asked to leave a restaurant because staff felt uncomfortable serving him…

[harriethoyle]

… AIBU to enjoy this?!

If you spout objectionable views, don’t be surprised if people object to you!

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tommy-robinson-kicked-out-hawksmoor-london-b1231594.html

What strange leaps of logic? I could understand the teeth gnashing if he was banned throughout the country. How is it "dangerous" that he was asked to leave a single restaurant? The hyperbole is real.

You haven't moved away if you believe that the business owner can refuse service based on political views, gender, race or ethnicity.

Groans. You're late with that one. It's been done to death.

It doesn't matter if it is one business or one thousand.

In reality it does, in the realms of fantasy it doesn't.

Hang on, but you're saying it's OK to refuse to serve Robinson, based on his political views?

Very intelligent response, thanks for the contribution to an otherwise compelling thread

Well if you'd read the thread, you will see that.

It gives TR the opportunity to rightly claim double standards and further division.

Yes

Good. No-one on their workplace should feel threatened

I think you may have misread Butterfly post. I got the impression she was supporting the fact that ALL opinions are valid. Not just the ones that are popular.

He'd claim double standards if he doesn't get enough chips.

He did nothing, directly, to threaten the staff. It's the fact that his presence, alone, being enough to raise a threat, has caused this debate.

As I said upthread. The staff would need to show they were at risk. Also I would have my doubts very many waiting staff would even be able to pick TR out of a line up of pictures.

😆 🤣 then you'd complain he had a chip on his shoulder.

Why? Surely if you go out of your way to be openly racist, bigoted and nasty you forfeit your right to be universally accepted everywhere?

Not as cut and dried as that, which includes your description of him.

My guess is a few Liberal luvvies were dining and put pressure on management, you know in their usual tolerant style.

Well, possibly. If a known rapist came into the restaurant and knew that his presence would upset both staff and other customers, isn't it reasonable to say he should expect not to be served?

That just a stupid take, though, and has been explained several times throughout the thread.

A service provider (generally) cannot lawfully discriminate against a potential customer on the basis of protected characteristics, as it should be. You can discriminate against someone for, for example, simply thinking they're a complete bell-end.

It's the difference between racism, sexism, ageism, etc vs "Tommy Robinsonism".

And yes, there are some limited instances where a political belief is protected but it's daft in the extreme to think that, for example, being racist/ageist/homophobic should be protected by equality legislation (it'd defeat the whole point).

My position is a little more meta. I highlight for the contributors that they are inconsistent in their support for Hawksmoor's actions, when they would not support Ashers on the same principle, and therefore that their views are partisan and illogical. Let us be consistent in how we debate, so that any conclusion has real merit.

Wrong please read the actual law instead of idiots on the Internets views

You have no idea what went on there. But I can assure you if farage came into my business. He would be sent on his way. Noone is obligated to serve anyone

I think we draw the line quite easily, i.e. we draw it where the Equality Act tells us we must. Most of the people on your list have protected characteristics so it would undoubtedly be wrong to refuse to serve them for that reason. Businesses are perfectly entitled to refuse to serve people who do not come within any of the protected categories, and that includes people with differing political views. The reality is that few if any restaurants would do that, because it would make no commercial sense. But it equally makes good commercial sense to let it be known that you will not countenance racist yobs. If I knew that a particular restaurant was patronised by Yaxley-Lennon and his mates I would certainly give it a big swerve, and I'm sure I'm not alone. So Hawksmoor have almost certainly done themselves a lot of good by reassuring their customers that they're not going to find themselves next to objectionable dickheads like this.