Big Society, Small Military?

Being republican with both a big and a small R the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism. How could I be given their history in Ireland and my belief that the people are sovereign – I believe in being a citizen, not a subject? There is still too much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and the shabby racist treatment of ex Ghurkha soldiers and their families. Then there were the squalid post-colonial misadventures in Kenya, Aden, Cyprus and Suez to name a few which suggest “Our Boys” as they are known in gender prejudice Tabloid Land have frequently been ill used by politicians. Then there was the Mother of all Illegal Wars, where Britain was not just unconscious of the present in Iraq but apparently also unaware of its shameful past in that country.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html


Nevertheless if you are not a pacifist you accept that Britain needs Armed Forces which must be properly resourced. You must also accept that there is a special compact to look after members of the Services who are prepared to die or be maimed to defend you and I - The Military Covenant. However I doesn’t recall either the Great Empire Defenders aka The Tories of the Lib Dems who form the Coalition of Opportunism which is grinding the UK back to the Stone Age tell the electors “Elect us and we’ll destroy the Army, Navy and RAF!” Nope, I never heard that before the election, did you?



No siree this was not the election platform but yet the UK’s Armed Forces are being ritually disembowelled on parade grounds around the world as we write. The Flagship of the Royal Navy Carrier Ark Royal and the entire Harrier Jet Force are being scrapped, £4 Bn of Nimrod Spy Planes (ordered by Conservative, Michael Portillo when they were in last time) will never fly and are being cut up. In the most significant changes to Britain’s defences since the post-Suez review of 1957, ministers and officials plan to scrap large parts of the Armed Forces. The Services will lose up to 16,000 personnel, hundreds of tanks, scores of fighter jets and half a dozen ships.


HMS Ark Royal has been sunk! The Flagship of the Navy she was the fifth Royal Navy ship to bear the illustrious name of Queen Elizabeth the First’s flagship which led the defeat of the Spanish Armada.


But the RAF will bear the brunt of the planned cuts. The Air Force will lose 7,000 airmen – almost one sixth of its total staff – and 295 aircraft. The cuts will leave the Force with fewer than 200 fighter planes for the first time since 1914. In addition, the Navy will lose two submarines, three amphibious ships and more than 100 senior officers, along with 2,000 sailors and marines.


Your job is OK Son!

The Army faces a 40 per cent cut to its fleet of 9,700 armoured vehicles and the loss of a 5,000-strong brigade of troops. The defence review scaled back Britain’s Armed Forces over the next decade, leaving the UK with just one operational aircraft carrier, a smaller number of surface ships and a reduction of 42,000 MoD personnel. The dismantling of three existing Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, which were close to completion at a cost of £4.1 billion, is one of the most embarrassing outcomes of the review.


£4.1 Billion of new Nimrod surveillance aircraft which have never flown being cut up and scrapped

One amazing feature of the Demolition Coalition so far is the compliant press coverage from the Murdoch and Tory Press. When you consider the acerbic and highly personalised disinformation campaign against Labour and its entire works before the May Election the docility of the right wing press in the face of swingeing Defence cuts is both incredible and hypocritical. Remember the highly personalised campaign against former PM Gordon Brown for not supporting “Our Boys.” Now we are told he supported them too much!



Labour’s “Cool Britannia” has been replaced by the LibCon’s “Cruel Britannia.” So the casual cruelty to the Armed Forces continues with career prospects being destroyed, RAF pilots who cost £4 M each to train being sacked with only short flying hours remaining before they get their wings, 100 long serving soldiers being sacked by email, Sea, Air, Rescue being privatised one week and the process abandoned the next and experienced pilots telling David Cameron to his face that he has destroyed their careers.



We have been here before under the Conservatives. Remember saved the cost of one Navy ship they withdrew from the Falkland Islands and it cost us an entire war! The Falklands War cost 255 men, six ships (ten others suffered varying degrees of battle damage), 34 aircraft and £2.778 billion. Another Conservative triumph of economic management! This current disembowelling of the armed forces is even more perverse because it is based on two big lies. One is that we need to replace Trident, the Cold War MAD (mutually assured destruction) system which will cost £34 Bn. And never be used. The other is the lie about the HUGE budget deficit. But the government’s budget projections do not take into account the selloff of the stakes in the banks rescued in the 2008 Credit Crunch at a cost of £37 Bn. For UK PLC’s stake in these banks. The perfidious nature of George Osborne’s projections means these are not included. So the country, including the armed forces is being wrecked to keep an Election Bribe to one side for 2015.


Big Society community based Defence Partnership

It is not just the Armed Forces which are not safe in the hands of the Tory / LibDem Coalition, the whole country is at risk. David Cameron is certainly standing behind "Our Boys and Girls" - in the queue at the Job Centre!

To see what serving members of the Armed Forces think of their treatment by the Government see;

www.roguegunner.com

Big Society, Small Military?

Being republican with both a big and a small R the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism. How could I be given their history in Ireland and my belief that the people are sovereign – I believe in being a citizen, not a subject? There is still too much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and the shabby racist treatment of ex Ghurkha soldiers and their families. Then there were the squalid post-colonial misadventures in Kenya, Aden, Cyprus and Suez to name a few which suggest “Our Boys” as they are known in gender prejudice Tabloid Land have frequently been ill used by politicians. Then there was the Mother of all Illegal Wars, where Britain was not just unconscious of the present in Iraq but apparently also unaware of its shameful past in that country.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html


Nevertheless if you are not a pacifist you accept that Britain needs Armed Forces which must be properly resourced. You must also accept that there is a special compact to look after members of the Services who are prepared to die or be maimed to defend you and I - The Military Covenant. However I doesn’t recall either the Great Empire Defenders aka The Tories of the Lib Dems who form the Coalition of Opportunism which is grinding the UK back to the Stone Age tell the electors “Elect us and we’ll destroy the Army, Navy and RAF!” Nope, I never heard that before the election, did you?



No siree this was not the election platform but yet the UK’s Armed Forces are being ritually disembowelled on parade grounds around the world as we write. The Flagship of the Royal Navy Carrier Ark Royal and the entire Harrier Jet Force are being scrapped, £4 Bn of Nimrod Spy Planes (ordered by Conservative, Michael Portillo when they were in last time) will never fly and are being cut up. In the most significant changes to Britain’s defences since the post-Suez review of 1957, ministers and officials plan to scrap large parts of the Armed Forces. The Services will lose up to 16,000 personnel, hundreds of tanks, scores of fighter jets and half a dozen ships.


HMS Ark Royal has been sunk! The Flagship of the Navy she was the fifth Royal Navy ship to bear the illustrious name of Queen Elizabeth the First’s flagship which led the defeat of the Spanish Armada.


But the RAF will bear the brunt of the planned cuts. The Air Force will lose 7,000 airmen – almost one sixth of its total staff – and 295 aircraft. The cuts will leave the Force with fewer than 200 fighter planes for the first time since 1914. In addition, the Navy will lose two submarines, three amphibious ships and more than 100 senior officers, along with 2,000 sailors and marines.


Your job is OK Son!

The Army faces a 40 per cent cut to its fleet of 9,700 armoured vehicles and the loss of a 5,000-strong brigade of troops. The defence review scaled back Britain’s Armed Forces over the next decade, leaving the UK with just one operational aircraft carrier, a smaller number of surface ships and a reduction of 42,000 MoD personnel. The dismantling of three existing Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, which were close to completion at a cost of £4.1 billion, is one of the most embarrassing outcomes of the review.


£4.1 Billion of new Nimrod surveillance aircraft which have never flown being cut up and scrapped

One amazing feature of the Demolition Coalition so far is the compliant press coverage from the Murdoch and Tory Press. When you consider the acerbic and highly personalised disinformation campaign against Labour and its entire works before the May Election the docility of the right wing press in the face of swingeing Defence cuts is both incredible and hypocritical. Remember the highly personalised campaign against former PM Gordon Brown for not supporting “Our Boys.” Now we are told he supported them too much!



Labour’s “Cool Britannia” has been replaced by the LibCon’s “Cruel Britannia.” So the casual cruelty to the Armed Forces continues with career prospects being destroyed, RAF pilots who cost £4 M each to train being sacked with only short flying hours remaining before they get their wings, 100 long serving soldiers being sacked by email, Sea, Air, Rescue being privatised one week and the process abandoned the next and experienced pilots telling David Cameron to his face that he has destroyed their careers.



We have been here before under the Conservatives. Remember saved the cost of one Navy ship they withdrew from the Falkland Islands and it cost us an entire war! The Falklands War cost 255 men, six ships (ten others suffered varying degrees of battle damage), 34 aircraft and £2.778 billion. Another Conservative triumph of economic management! This current disembowelling of the armed forces is even more perverse because it is based on two big lies. One is that we need to replace Trident, the Cold War MAD (mutually assured destruction) system which will cost £34 Bn. And never be used. The other is the lie about the HUGE budget deficit. But the government’s budget projections do not take into account the selloff of the stakes in the banks rescued in the 2008 Credit Crunch at a cost of £37 Bn. For UK PLC’s stake in these banks. The perfidious nature of George Osborne’s projections means these are not included. So the country, including the armed forces is being wrecked to keep an Election Bribe to one side for 2015.


Big Society community based Defence Partnership

It is not just the Armed Forces which are not safe in the hands of the Tory / LibDem Coalition, the whole country is at risk. David Cameron is certainly standing behind "Our Boys and Girls" - in the queue at the Job Centre!

To see what serving members of the Armed Forces think of their treatment by the Government see;

www.roguegunner.com

Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

History will record how the dual moral travesties of Bloody Sunday and Internment without Trial (and without intelligent intelligence) of 1,200 people created and empowered the Provisional IRA. The abandonment of moral authority by the British State to support the failed political entity of Northern Ireland created a poisonous moral equivalence to allow the IRA to justify its hijacking of the Civil Rights movement with its own brand of crypto fascism.

The moral abandonment was compounded by the no warning terrorist bombing of Libya and illegal attempted assassination of Colonel Gaddafi (which killed his 15 month old adopted daughter Hannah and injured two of his sons) by a group called the USAF operating from a British base which resulted in the IRA having an unlimited supply of Semtex explosive.

As you sow so shall you reap?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10320609.stm

Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

History will record how the dual moral travesties of Bloody Sunday and Internment without Trial (and without intelligent intelligence) of 1,200 people created and empowered the Provisional IRA. The abandonment of moral authority by the British State to support the failed political entity of Northern Ireland created a poisonous moral equivalence to allow the IRA to justify its hijacking of the Civil Rights movement with its own brand of crypto fascism.

The moral abandonment was compounded by the no warning terrorist bombing of Libya and illegal attempted assassination of Colonel Gaddafi (which killed his 15 month old adopted daughter Hannah and injured two of his sons) by a group called the USAF operating from a British base which resulted in the IRA having an unlimited supply of Semtex explosive.

As you sow so shall you reap?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10320609.stm

The Gurkha Justice Campaign

The Sage has a modest proposition for his regular Blogistas. The modest proposition is this; that after the redoubtable defender of our civil rights, Shami Chakrabarti the Director of Liberty, the most wonderful woman in Britain is undoubtedly Joanna Lumley who has fronted an unstinting campaign to attain decent treatment for former Gurkha soldiers. Now the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism but there is much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and now their shabby racist treatment of ex Gurkha soldiers and their families.

On September 30th 2008 last Gurkha war heroes thought they had won the right to stay in Britain after the Government was ordered to recognise its 'debt of honour' to them. Veterans wept with joy and bellowed the traditional war cry of 'Ayo Gorkhali!' - 'the Gurkhas are coming!' - After the landmark judgment. More than 2,000 former Gurkhas were refused permission to live in the UK because they had retired before July 1, 1997.

Joanna Lumley said then on the steps of the High Court in London: "This day gives our country the chance to right a great wrong and wipe out a national shame that has stained us all." Now in the past week she has articulated her disgust at the Home Office's new rules set out for Gurkhas to live in Britain. The Government says around 4,000 Gurkhas and some 6,000 spouses and their children will benefit from this - Gurkha supporters say only around 100 will be allowed to settle.



The actress, who is a long-standing campaigner for the cause, said she was very surprised by the decision. "The Gurkhas cannot meet these new criteria. It makes me ashamed of our government. We will fight on. We don't stop. This has set us back in its obtuse lack of understanding of any of the problems facing these men or, I think, of the conditions facing soldiers. I think this is inexplicable. I can only think they have no notion of the armed services. They have no direct experience of what it is."

She vowed to continue the campaign, saying: "This is a setback. We simply regroup and start again. We don't give up the battle just because one of the tactics has failed." Martin Howe, of Howe & Co solicitors, acting on behalf of the Gurkhas said: "This is nothing less than an act of treachery. It has scant regard to the High Court judgment of last September. It has scant regard to the wishes of the people up and down the length and breadth of the country.”

One story above all illustrates the shabby treatment of former Gurkha soldiers. An old soldier: 84-year old Tul Bahadur Pun, who earned his VC in Burma on June 23, 1944, after almost all his comrades were wiped out, was originally denied entry to the UK. The 84-year-old's heroic actions won him royal admirers - he was invited to the Queen's Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother.



Indian-born actress Lumley, 61, told how Mr Pun risked his life in 1944 to rescue her father, Captain James Lumley, from Japanese machine gunners. She told the Daily Mirror: "I've known the name Bahadar Pun since I was four. He was an absolute hero in my house. Father was a Chindit alongside him in Burma and he showed us the picture of Mr Pun receiving his Victoria Cross with pride. I don't know exactly what happened on that battlefield in 1944 because war was so grim back then that few Chindits ever spoke about what happened to them. But what I do know is that it was his bravery that saved so many lives, including my dad's. We owe this man a huge debt. It's disgraceful he could be treated so badly by our government."

The Home Office barrister said that merely (sic) winning a Victoria Cross in battle was not sufficient connection with the UK to allow them to settle there. This attitude was condemned by Mr. Justice Blake as "Irrational, inconsistent, unlawful and lacking in clarity" – when he ruled against the UK Government on a law that barred Gurkha soldiers, who served the UK in the Falklands and the Gulf War, from settling in Britain. The campaign (http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk ) had indeed referred to the French movie Days of Glory and the Gurkha's used the French example to back their campaign asking for the same pension rights as other British soldiers. ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/days-of-glory-indignes.html )

The Home Office sparked outrage when it originally declined Tul Bahadur Pun a settlement visa telling him: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK." When after extensive protests, including from many MP’s and serving military figures it reversed its decision, The Home Office statement said; "This decision was not taken lightly and reflects the extraordinary nature of this case, in particular Mr Pun's heroic record in service of Britain which saw him awarded the Victoria Cross. It is entirely right that this record should not only be recognised but honoured." They added: "We have also taken into consideration his current medical condition."


Tul Bahadur Pun in 1953, nine years after he won the VC

Joanna Lumley was born in Kashmir and spent her early life in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Her father served for 30 years with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, and was a Chindit in Burma; his admiration and affection for these soldiers of Nepal was shared by all who served with them. Joanna was a model in the sixties and started acting in 1968, on screens large and small, and on the stage. She has been a Bond girl, was nearly bitten by Dracula, saved the world with the New Avengers, turned time back in Sapphire and Steel and raised a glass or two in Absolutely Fabulous. Her documentaries have taken her to Bhutan, Sarawak, Kenya, Indonesia, Norway and a desert island, where she survived as Girl Friday. Married, with one son and two granddaughters, she lives in London.

Joanna Lumley has issued this personal statement after the issue of the new government rules on Gurkha entitlements;

“Gurkhas are fighting for Justice. They want the same terms and conditions as their UK and Commonwealth counterparts. Britain has had no greater friends than the Gurkhas. They have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.

You may have seen in the media that the Gurkhas have been fighting in Parliament and the Courts. Step by step, things are getting better - but there is a long way to go. The Government decision of 25th April 2009 on Gurkha settlement rights is yet another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country.

Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy. A Gurkha will have to have served 20 years or more or won one of a handful of medals: the big majority of Gurkhas served for 15 years under standard army policy.

The campaign for full Gurkha Justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The Government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.

Please sign up to the campaign below. We will keep in touch with you about how you can help: there is now much that needs to be done.

Join me in the campaign: together, we can finally right this wrong.”

Joanna Lumley

www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

The Gurkhas indeed won a famous victory in their landmark case last October. However, the judge was only able to declare the current policy that excludes pre 1997 Gurkhas from the right to live in the UK as "unlawful".

Only the UK government can put in place the new policy that the British people want – the right of all Gurkhas to settle in the UK irrespective of the date of retirement. What the UK Government has done is come forth with a shabby fudge to pay lip service to the court’s ruling, and brought in new rules that still discriminate against pre 1997 retirees.

I’m sure Joanna Lumley and the Gurkha Justice campaign are right to continue fighting for the UK to meet its moral duty to the Gurkha’s and I’m equally sure that in bringing forth this shabby proposal the government has greatly misjudged public opinion. I’ve seen Joanna campaigning in Parliament Square and she is not doing this as some fashionable luvvie campaign. Rather she deserves our support and admiration as she is acting out a deep sense of integrity and moral commitment that Britain needs to treat those who have served it with respect. Let's all support the Gurkha Justice campaign in overturning this wrong.


Joanna Lumley and Tul Bahadur Pun VC

The Gurkha Justice Campaign

The Sage has a modest proposition for his regular Blogistas. The modest proposition is this; that after the redoubtable defender of our civil rights, Shami Chakrabarti the Director of Liberty, the most wonderful woman in Britain is undoubtedly Joanna Lumley who has fronted an unstinting campaign to attain decent treatment for former Gurkha soldiers. Now the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism but there is much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and now their shabby racist treatment of ex Gurkha soldiers and their families.

On September 30th 2008 last Gurkha war heroes thought they had won the right to stay in Britain after the Government was ordered to recognise its 'debt of honour' to them. Veterans wept with joy and bellowed the traditional war cry of 'Ayo Gorkhali!' - 'the Gurkhas are coming!' - After the landmark judgment. More than 2,000 former Gurkhas were refused permission to live in the UK because they had retired before July 1, 1997.

Joanna Lumley said then on the steps of the High Court in London: "This day gives our country the chance to right a great wrong and wipe out a national shame that has stained us all." Now in the past week she has articulated her disgust at the Home Office's new rules set out for Gurkhas to live in Britain. The Government says around 4,000 Gurkhas and some 6,000 spouses and their children will benefit from this - Gurkha supporters say only around 100 will be allowed to settle.



The actress, who is a long-standing campaigner for the cause, said she was very surprised by the decision. "The Gurkhas cannot meet these new criteria. It makes me ashamed of our government. We will fight on. We don't stop. This has set us back in its obtuse lack of understanding of any of the problems facing these men or, I think, of the conditions facing soldiers. I think this is inexplicable. I can only think they have no notion of the armed services. They have no direct experience of what it is."

She vowed to continue the campaign, saying: "This is a setback. We simply regroup and start again. We don't give up the battle just because one of the tactics has failed." Martin Howe, of Howe & Co solicitors, acting on behalf of the Gurkhas said: "This is nothing less than an act of treachery. It has scant regard to the High Court judgment of last September. It has scant regard to the wishes of the people up and down the length and breadth of the country.”

One story above all illustrates the shabby treatment of former Gurkha soldiers. An old soldier: 84-year old Tul Bahadur Pun, who earned his VC in Burma on June 23, 1944, after almost all his comrades were wiped out, was originally denied entry to the UK. The 84-year-old's heroic actions won him royal admirers - he was invited to the Queen's Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother.



Indian-born actress Lumley, 61, told how Mr Pun risked his life in 1944 to rescue her father, Captain James Lumley, from Japanese machine gunners. She told the Daily Mirror: "I've known the name Bahadar Pun since I was four. He was an absolute hero in my house. Father was a Chindit alongside him in Burma and he showed us the picture of Mr Pun receiving his Victoria Cross with pride. I don't know exactly what happened on that battlefield in 1944 because war was so grim back then that few Chindits ever spoke about what happened to them. But what I do know is that it was his bravery that saved so many lives, including my dad's. We owe this man a huge debt. It's disgraceful he could be treated so badly by our government."

The Home Office barrister said that merely (sic) winning a Victoria Cross in battle was not sufficient connection with the UK to allow them to settle there. This attitude was condemned by Mr. Justice Blake as "Irrational, inconsistent, unlawful and lacking in clarity" – when he ruled against the UK Government on a law that barred Gurkha soldiers, who served the UK in the Falklands and the Gulf War, from settling in Britain. The campaign (http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk ) had indeed referred to the French movie Days of Glory and the Gurkha's used the French example to back their campaign asking for the same pension rights as other British soldiers. ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/days-of-glory-indignes.html )

The Home Office sparked outrage when it originally declined Tul Bahadur Pun a settlement visa telling him: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK." When after extensive protests, including from many MP’s and serving military figures it reversed its decision, The Home Office statement said; "This decision was not taken lightly and reflects the extraordinary nature of this case, in particular Mr Pun's heroic record in service of Britain which saw him awarded the Victoria Cross. It is entirely right that this record should not only be recognised but honoured." They added: "We have also taken into consideration his current medical condition."


Tul Bahadur Pun in 1953, nine years after he won the VC

Joanna Lumley was born in Kashmir and spent her early life in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Her father served for 30 years with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, and was a Chindit in Burma; his admiration and affection for these soldiers of Nepal was shared by all who served with them. Joanna was a model in the sixties and started acting in 1968, on screens large and small, and on the stage. She has been a Bond girl, was nearly bitten by Dracula, saved the world with the New Avengers, turned time back in Sapphire and Steel and raised a glass or two in Absolutely Fabulous. Her documentaries have taken her to Bhutan, Sarawak, Kenya, Indonesia, Norway and a desert island, where she survived as Girl Friday. Married, with one son and two granddaughters, she lives in London.

Joanna Lumley has issued this personal statement after the issue of the new government rules on Gurkha entitlements;

“Gurkhas are fighting for Justice. They want the same terms and conditions as their UK and Commonwealth counterparts. Britain has had no greater friends than the Gurkhas. They have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.

You may have seen in the media that the Gurkhas have been fighting in Parliament and the Courts. Step by step, things are getting better - but there is a long way to go. The Government decision of 25th April 2009 on Gurkha settlement rights is yet another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country.

Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy. A Gurkha will have to have served 20 years or more or won one of a handful of medals: the big majority of Gurkhas served for 15 years under standard army policy.

The campaign for full Gurkha Justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The Government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.

Please sign up to the campaign below. We will keep in touch with you about how you can help: there is now much that needs to be done.

Join me in the campaign: together, we can finally right this wrong.”

Joanna Lumley

www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

The Gurkhas indeed won a famous victory in their landmark case last October. However, the judge was only able to declare the current policy that excludes pre 1997 Gurkhas from the right to live in the UK as "unlawful".

Only the UK government can put in place the new policy that the British people want – the right of all Gurkhas to settle in the UK irrespective of the date of retirement. What the UK Government has done is come forth with a shabby fudge to pay lip service to the court’s ruling, and brought in new rules that still discriminate against pre 1997 retirees.

I’m sure Joanna Lumley and the Gurkha Justice campaign are right to continue fighting for the UK to meet its moral duty to the Gurkha’s and I’m equally sure that in bringing forth this shabby proposal the government has greatly misjudged public opinion. I’ve seen Joanna campaigning in Parliament Square and she is not doing this as some fashionable luvvie campaign. Rather she deserves our support and admiration as she is acting out a deep sense of integrity and moral commitment that Britain needs to treat those who have served it with respect. Let's all support the Gurkha Justice campaign in overturning this wrong.


Joanna Lumley and Tul Bahadur Pun VC