Picasso's update

By Adrian Chan-Wyles

ON THE 29^th October 2013 the staff of the Picasso’s Coffee Lounge, Union Street, Torquay, refused entry and service to a female wheelchair user on the grounds of her disability, stating that the manager had taken the decision to exclude such people from the café.  There had also been a separate report that states the floor manager was over-heard berating an employee for not “looking like the right kind of person” to work there – and then sacking her, all within earshot of customers. Due to news of these events spreading across the internet, a campaign has begun for all right-minded people to boycott this café in the name of solidarity and socialism. 

Since then Mr Mark Lewis, the Manager of Picasso’s Coffee Lounge, (Torquay), was interviewed by Devon and Cornwall Police and stated that he banned the disabled woman in question because he was of the opinion that she “smelt”, and that he was concerned that her presence in his establishment would put his able bodied customers off their food.  Devon and Cornwall Police are of the opinion that no crime has taken place, and have refused to record this incident as a “hate crime” against a disabled wheelchair user.  Devon and Cornwall Police have been officially criticised in the past for failing to react to crime in the area. 

Obviously, with the police appearing to condone his behaviour, Mr Mark Lewis remains unrepentant about the incident and has written to the victim stating that his expressed opinion that she “smelt”, in no way was connected to the fact that she is a disabled person confined to a wheelchair.  In the meantime, this disabled person remains banned from the establishment in question and has received no assistance from her local MP – Liberal Democrat Adrian Sanders – despite numerous letters asking for his help.

 It is important to note that with the ideologically-led cuts to the NHS and Welfare system, (to fund a tax cut for the rich), it has been reported across the UK that Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs have conspired to initiate a policy of “not helping” those of their constituents trapped in an ever downward spiral of poverty, sure in the knowledge that the most vulnerable members of society – that is to say, the victims of their policies – possess no resources to do anything about their behaviour.

As it stands, the medieval Judeo-Christian ignorance that defines disability as a corruption from the Devil, or a punishment from God, continues to operate within UK secular society.  Disabled people are treated as outsiders and their particular personal needs as some form of inconvenience for the able bodied public.  Mr Mark Lewis, infected with this primitive mindset, appears to believe that he can discriminate against a disabled person simply because his prejudice tells him that their different physical presence must equate with an infantile assumption that they “smell”.  His actions protect the ignorant masses from having to psychologically evolve beyond a primitive mind-set that 400 years ago saw old ladies who owned cats burnt to death in the name of God on the village heath.  Mr Mark Lewis has done the progressive cause a world of good by reminding it that through his shocking ignorance there is still much to do to reform UK society in the socialist model.

Religiosity is an ignorant poison that must be eradicated from the human psyche.  It is ironic that the artist Picasso was a life-long communist and ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin.