Several of my friends have been spat on for being disabled in public.

I honestly did not know having an accent different from the local accent was such a big deal

Doesn't even have to be a foreign one, just being a Geordie, Scouser, Scots or Welsh can be enough to set the alleged wags away.

Which in no way justifies either happening to immigrants, but British xenophobia runs both deeper and closer to the surface than people imagine. There's a reason the Daily Mail's so popular.