Royal Marines Turned Away From Wetherspoons

Going to get their first pint after serving in Afghanistan

Dan Buchanan, 21, and Kelvin Billings, 22, were turned away at the Isambard Kingdom Brunel pub in Portsmouth when doormen said they didn’t look old enough. They showed the cards – which included their pictures and dates of birth – but managers at the JD Wetherspoon pub insisted they were not an acceptable form of identification.
Lance Corporal Billings said: “It would have been our first pint since getting back. “We’ve used our Marines ID all over the world and it’s never been turned down before."
....
The pair, serving with 42 and 45 Commando in Afghanistan, had both returned to their shared house unaware that the other was also back on leave. They went to the pub, dressed in civilian clothes, for a quiet beer and catch-up on Saturday evening. But the doorman asked them for ID and rejected the military cards they produced.
Marine Buchanan said: “We couldn’t believe it, we didn’t have any other ID because it’s all still in Afghanistan.”

Wetherspoons says that they are trying to cut down on fraud and they only accept three forms of ID, military not being one of them (what?!?!). Oh, and they are sorry that the guys were "disappointed".

-- UPDATE --
If you would like to let Wetherspoons know what you're thinking (politely, of course) try here.
And another article with some more info.
Daily Mail article with another photo and LOTS of interesting comments

-- 2/6/09 UPDATE --
Well, well, well.  Seems that the Wetherspoon people had a meeting and have decided that it might be smart to accept military identification cards.  Only in their Portsmouth pubs, but it's a start.

... yesterday, following an executive meeting, the company apologised for their “mistake” and said they will now be accepting military IDs in all their Portsmouth pubs. The city is the home of the Royal Navy and Marines have been stationed there for centuries.

A Wetherspoon spokesman said: “We made a mistake on this issue and we apologise. We have had a meeting and decided that from now we will accept military ID cards in all of our pubs in Portsmouth.
“It’s something that we perhaps didn’t have a clear view on before, so we are now happy to offer a definite point of view and policy on the issue.”

Comments

[dave]

We started a FaceBook group after reading about this, and started a petition at number 10, come and have a read.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=725347195#/group.php?gid=47913899019&ref=nf

[Kath]

Hi Dave & welcome! Thank you for posting a comment on this, really appreciate it. Everybody check out the Facebook link and sign if you're a British citizen!