What price 'freedom'?

So, I'm sure the opinion-sphere will be awash with righteous indignation over the World Ending news that a pub in Coventry didn't do anything.

Brown's Independent Bar, in Coventry, turned away some squaddies in uniform as they have a policy that says, we won't serve people in uniform. This is a policy that the bar had in place, presumably, for a while. I know lots of bars like this and I can't see the problem (well, I can, nut more later). My own thoughts are thus; why would you want to go into a public bar, for the purposes of leisure, in your uniform anyway? Coppers don't do it, Fireman don't do it, why should soldiers/airmen/sailors be any different? Isn't this the freedom we expect that our forefathers fought for? What is the problem with forces personnel going into drinking establishments? Well, not to put too fine a point on it, they often get drunk and arsey, that's what. I don't give a hoot whether you've just come back from Afghanistan or Salisbury Plain, if you walk into a bar, get drunk and start on with all this 'I fought for your freedom' bananas then you'll cause problems. My home village had one clever lad, a Marine, who would regularly consume large quantities of ale and proceed to tell any bloke within boring distance that he'd be able to 'take them'. Inevitably he'd be asked to leave and then he'd start on about how he risked his life and blah blah blah. Basically he was spoiling it for all those other folks who approach their service with dignity.

For landlords faced with similar problems, putting an embargo on uniforms is often the only way to prevent such events. Several of my forces friends have bragged about tussles with their comrades of the Air, Sea and Earth, all friendly like, that have left pubs and bars wrecked. But it's all OK, 'cause we're freedom fighters.

So, this bar in Coventry had the temerity to refuse to serve some squaddies. Unbeknownst to the barman these particular lads were seeking rest and respite from a funeral, so when they were refused service their own subjectivism kicked in and the funeral assumed a pivotal role in the story; pall bearers of a dead hero were refused a drink, the implication being that some dire act of betrayal had been perpetrated on these scions of Britannia. No. It was a mistake, nothing more. Had the owner been aware of the nature of the men's visit then a different outcome would have ensued.

The owner of the place has made an unreserved apology to the widow of the dead soldier, an apology which has been accepted once the actual circumstances of the event had been laid out. So all's well that ends well then, eh?

Not quite.

The facebook page calling for the boycotting of the bar (in itself an act so repellantly against the very tenets of freedom) has allowed every lowlife thug with an axe to grind to post threats and slurs in a manner that anf fascist would be proud of. That a misunderstanding could give rise to such demonic levels of hatred leaves a bitter taste, especially when carried out in the name of 'freedom'.

I have every respect for those who would put themselces in harms way for the benefit of others, but doing so should not give anyone carte blanche to dictate how those freedoms are used. There will be things you don't like but cannot stop, that's why it's called freedom. While I have no particular thoughts on the bar in question I do find the over-reaction by the services and those that support their actions, to be thoroughly reprehensible and of a level of bullying that the forces have been traditionally known for and seem unable to eradicate.