The Editor

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Public services and discrimination  ...

A recent case decided by the Court of Appeal illustrates that when services are offered to the public they must be offered in a non-discriminatory way. In this case, a gay couple who had entered into a civil partnership booked a double room at a hotel by telephone. The hotel was run by a married couple with strong Christian beliefs. Their online booking form stated that they preferred to let double accommodation to heterosexual married couples only. The gay couple did not see this notice. On arrival at the hotel there were no twin rooms available and they had to seek accommodation elsewhere. 

The hotel owners refunded the deposit but the couple brought a claim under the Equality Act. 

Click here to read more.

Article courtesy of Birkett Long

Compulsory retirement and age discrimination ...

On 25 April 2012, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes, an important case which concerns the scope for justifying direct discrimination on the ground of age and in particular a compulsory retirement age.

Click here to read more.

Article courtesy of Kennedy's law 

A bit more about Colchester Carers ...

The Colchester Carers Centre was set up in 1999 and offers support to all carers and also runs a Young Carers Project which has, since 1999, offered support to over 50 children.

At any one time the Project has an average of 14 children who are accepted on the Project from the age of 8 and usually leave at the age of 16. Shirley Cuthew, company secretary said "One of our Young Carers, who has been with the Project since she was 8, is leaving us in September to take up a course at Writtle College."

The charity aims to provide a "family" environment and takes the children out once a month to activities such as Tenpin bowling and Rollerworld. Food is always offered at these events as part of the social interaction and staff personally collect the children to and from their homes and find that often during the journey children discuss what is happening in their lives.

The main concern that the staff have is that at any one time 50% of the children on the Project in secondary education are the target of school bullies.

A child who cares for a family member may not wish to disclose to the school their caring role as they are afraid that they will be taken into care. Caring children stand out to their peers because they behave like adults and have not had the opportunity of a normal childhood.

Behaving as an adult makes them a target, not only for other children, but for teachers who can mistake the "adult" behaviour of the child as "rude" which may lead to the child being labelled as difficult.

First World Record ...

Hannah Cockroft all but assured her immortality as a pub quiz answer on Tuesday by becoming the first athlete to break a world record at London's Olympic Stadium.

Participating in the women's T54 100m at the Disability Athletics Challenge (DAC) as part of the London Prepares testing series for this summer's Olympics and Paralympics, the wheelchair racer and Guardian diarist from Halifax scorched up the track's home straight in a time of 18.56sec, despite race preparations that were far from ideal. 

"It's been a nightmare morning so I guess this has made up for it," said a pleasantly surprised Cockroft. "The bus that was supposed to take us to the stadium crashed, so a load of taxis were ordered and all the foreign athletes took them. We were delayed setting off and, because it was rush hour, it took us two hours to get here. We missed the call-up, missed the warm-up and I just had to literally get in my chair and get on the track."

Click here to read the full article ...

Article courtesy of The Guardian

London 2012 Tickets - your last chance ...

London 2012 recently launched a new batch of Olympic Games tickets for people who have applied unsuccessfully for tickets in previous rounds.

 Still not got any tickets?

Any remaining Olympic Games tickets, including tickets to the Olympic Football Tournament, go on sale from 11am on Wednesday 23 May 2012. 

Any remaining Paralympic Games tickets will go on sale from 11am on Monday 21 May 2012.

Good luck!

Go grab a coffee...

Has anyone eaten at Dans Le Noir? It's a restaurant in London where you eat and drink in complete darkness with a blind waiter to guide you through the experience "encouraging you to completely re-evaluate the notion of taste and smelling through the gastronomic and pedagogical process."

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has been.

Here's a link to their website.