Britain Betrays Its Gurkha soldiers - And Itself

[darrels joy]

Britain Betrays Its Gurkha soldiers - And Itself



What kind of country invites thousands of its avowed enemies to come and settle at the public expense while tossing its heroes out of the country? Welcome to the UK.

The Gurkhas are some of Britain's most valiant fighters. Hill tribesmen from Nepal and the Himalayas, they've been an elite and feared British force to be reckoned with from the deserts of the Middle East to the Falklands. And now they've been betrayed by the country they were willing to die for:

Thousands of Gurkhas were yesterday shut out of the UK in what was described as 'shameful betrayal' by the Government.

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas claimed changes in the rules would allow 4,300 more former Gurkhas to settle here out of the 36,000 who served in the British Army before July 1997.

But lawyers battling for the Gurkhas said they believed only around 100 would benefit.

Hundreds of former rank-and-file soldiers will face deportation while thousands more will be barred from entering the country.

Under the new rules, former Gurkhas must prove they have either served more than 20 years or have won one of the top four medals for gallantry: the Victoria Cross; the Distinguished Service Order; the Distinguished Conduct Medal; or the Military Cross.

They can also claim residency if they can prove they have lived in Britain legally for a minimum of three years, have close family ties or have a chronic medical condition which was caused or aggravated by their Army service. {..}

The Home Office was ordered to review its immigration policy on Gurkhas last year by a High Court judge who ruled that its old guidelines were unfair and unlawful after a long and bitter battle.

Under the previous rules, Gurkhas who retired before 1997 had to prove they had 'strong ties' to Britain and thousands were rejected, including Victoria Cross holders.

For starters, moat of the rank and file soldiers were only ever allowed to serve a maximum of fifteen years - only officers were allowed to serve twenty. Many of the others are living in poverty in Nepal or places like Hong Kong and simply won't be allowed in...this at a time when Britain is letting in thousands of Muslims who live on the dole, want to impose sharia and are working to make the UK part of dar Islam.

The picture above shows Victoria Cross winners Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun (bottom left) and Honorary Sergeant Lachiman Gurung (bottom right), along with actress Joanna Lumley( Patsy from AbFab) outside the Houses of Parliament in London. She's there because her father served with the Gurkhas, she has a sense of honor and gratitude and she's not about to let her father's war comrades down.

Oddly enough, Shakespeare, an Englishman had the best take on it, in Henry V - "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhood's cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

We still honor that fine sentiment in America.Here in the US, over 260,000 foreign nationals have earned their citizenship serving in our military since 1996, and they get the same pay, benefits and pensions any other veteran gets.No American government would dare single them out for discrimination, because the rest of us wouldn't stand for it.

But Britain's government has turned its back on its heros , to its disgrace. When a nation loses its honor to that degree, there's not much left to say.

http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/200...diers-and.html

[darrels joy]

Commonwealth cousins prop up the British Army
Some 10,000 soldiers from Fiji, Ghana and other countries are boosting the army

Private Matereti Vere is among the Fijians to have served in Iraq






Daniel Foggo and Roger Waite



THE British Army’s “foreign legion” of soldiers recruited abroad to fill its ranks has expanded to more than one in 10 of all troops.

NonUK nationals now number about 10,430, just less than 11% of the army’s full-time troops, excluding reserves, according to new figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Some nationalities have become so numerous that they could form their own units in the manner of the Nepalese Gurkhas. The number of Fijians has reached 2,110, the strength of a small brigade. Other nationalities such as Ghanaians and South Africans have also increased to 700-800 each, enough for a battalion apiece.

Some fears have been voiced that burgeoning numbers of nonUK soldiers could foster a “mercenary” image, while other critics believe the armed forces’ British identity could be endangered.

In all, the figures show that 38 foreign nationalities are represented in the army, nearly all from the Commonwealth. These do not include the 3,600-strong Brigade of Gurkhas, recruited in Nepal.

The actual numbers could be even higher, because the Ministry of Defence (MoD) admitted it was not able to identify the nationalities of 1,140 personnel from across the armed services.

The disclosure of the figures comes as new rules were announced last Friday about the eligibility of Gurkha veterans to settle in Britain.

Those discharged before 1997 will only be allowed to stay if they fulfil a number of criteria such as completing 20 years’ service or receiving a bravery award. The decision was condemned as “insulting” by campaigners for former Gurkhas.

The army has now put a cap on the number of Commonwealth recruits in some units at 15% “in the interests of operational effectiveness”.

The influx of foreigners has helped compensate for the army’s problems in retaining British-born soldiers. It began encouraging applications from abroad 10 years ago after a requirement to have lived in Britain for five years was lifted. Army recruiting teams now visit countries such as Fiji and some Caribbean nations to help process the large numbers of applicants in advance.

The Caribbean has supplied the army’s most famous foreign-born soldier, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, who won a Victoria Cross in Iraq and is from Grenada.

The number of Fijians in the forces as a whole has grown from just 10 in 1999 to 2,220 in January, the figures show. One attraction for the army is the Fijians’ prowess at rugby. Last year the army’s 12-man sevens squad included 10 Fijians and a South African. Its captain, Mark Lee, was the only British player.

The Ghanaian contingent in the armed forces has expanded by 40% since 2006 and now numbers 740. Other growing contingents include 840 South Africans – up 45% in the past three years – Gambians, Malawians, St Lucians and Kenyans. Jamaicans, however, have dropped from 930 in 2006 to 600.

Excluding Gurkhas, the number of foreign and Commonwealth troops totalled 6,830, with a further 850 in the army whose nationality was unknown.

Serving Commonwealth soldiers said there were a variety of reasons for joining up. Apo Satala, a Fijian private in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who joined the army in 2000 and is now a star rugby player, said: “Fijians have a warrior fighting spirit in them which helps in joining the army. Back home, living wasn’t to their [UK] standards. It’s good coming over, bringing your family across, schooling and all this stuff. They quite look after you from the welfare side. The only thing that affects us is the weather.” Tom Pounder, 45, grew up in South Africa before joining the British Army, including spells in the Royal Green Jackets and at Sandhurst. He is now a Territorial Army officer.

“For most of us in the Commonwealth, this is the mother country,” said Pounder. “This is where the basis for those countries’ armies has been built.”

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: “There must be some sort of natural limit to quite how far it’s desirable for this to go.

One hesitates to use emotive terms like mercenaries but clearly you’re beginning to travel somewhere onto that spectrum.”

An MoD spokesman said: “The armed forces recruit the right calibre of people to maintain operational effectiveness and we welcome all British and Commonwealth nationals.”



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6168981.ece

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[darrels joy]

Brown defeated over Gurkha rules


Gordon Brown's government has suffered a shock defeat in the Commons on its policy of restricting the right of many former Gurkhas to settle in the UK.

MPs voted by 267 to 246 for a Lib Dem motion offering all Gurkhas equal right of residence, with the Tories and 27 Labour rebels backing it.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called the government's position "shameful".
Immigration minister Phil Woolas told MPs new proposals would be published before Parliament's summer recess.

In a statement, he said: "This government respects the will of the House of Commons."

He added that all outstanding applications for UK residence by Gurkhas would be dealt with by the end of May.

Mr Brown's first significant defeat as prime minister came despite last-minute concessions being offered to rebel Labour MPs.

'Immense victory'
The Commons vote is not binding, but it represents an embarrassment for the government.

It comes at a time when Mr Brown is facing criticism over other issues, including his reform plans for MPs' expenses, which will also go to a vote on Thursday.

It is the biggest Commons victory achieved by the Liberal Democrats since their formation two decades ago, and is the first time a government has lost an opposition day debate since James Callaghan in January 1978.


“ The real worry for Gordon Brown and his whips is that this could merely be the warm-up for Thursday's vote on expenses ”

BBC's Gary O'Donoghue


There were shouts of "resign" as the numbers were announced. The Lib Dems said 28 Labour MPs had voted for their motion - although that is thought to include one Labour MP who voted both for and against the motion.

After the vote Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron joined actress Joanna Lumley, who has been campaigning on the issue, and Gurkhas outside Parliament.
Mr Clegg said: "This is an immense victory on a series of fronts: for the rights of Gurkhas who have been waiting so long for justice, a victory for Parliament, a victory for decency."

He added that it was "the kind of thing people want this country to do".

Uncomfortable episode
Mr Cameron said it was "embarrassing" for the prime minister because his efforts to strike a "shoddy deal" with Labour rebels had failed.

He added: "Today is a historic day where Parliament took the right decision. The government have got to come back with immediate proposals so that the Gurkhas can have an answer."



Among Labour MPs voting for the Liberal Democrat motion were home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz, ministerial aide Stephen Pound and former cabinet minister Andrew Smith.

Mr Pound said he had resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to vote against the government.

Labour MP Martin Salter, chairman of the Parliamentary group on Gurkhas' rights, abstained.

He told the BBC he refused to support the government but wanted to acknowledge the concessions made.

'Major changes'
He added: "It is the amount of abstainers that did it. Comparatively few Labour MPs actually voted for the Lib Dem motion but an awful lot of people sat on their hands as a way of showing their determination to finish this issue."

Some 36,000 former Gurkhas have been denied UK residency because they served in the British army before 1997.

Ministers had introduced new rules allowing more soldiers to settle here based on long service, medals received, and those injured in battle.



The Home Office said that new rules would allow about 4,300 more to settle, but the Gurkha Justice Campaign said it would be just 100.
Defending the policy at prime minister's questions earlier, Gordon Brown said: "Since 1997 we have taken the first action to give justice to the Gurkhas.

"During that period of time the first ever Gurkhas to have rights of settlement in Britain has been agreed and 6,000 have now applied successfully and come into the country."

He said they had created equal pay and pensions for the Gurkhas and doubled the pensions of people staying in Nepal.

But he said: "We have got to balance our responsibilities to those who have served our country with the finance that we need to be able to meet these obligations - and not base our offer on money we cannot afford."

Ms Lumley said the campaigners were "elated" as they had expected to lose the vote.
"When it came through we saw it on the screen and I can't tell you the sense of elation," she said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8023882.stm

The saddest part of this story is that they expected to lose.

Joy