Support the gurkas

[PAULW]

The Gurkha Justice Campaign
Thank you so much for supporting the Gurkhas fight for justice.

The Government must act now, after years of delay, to change the law to allow all retired Gurkhas the right to stay in the UK, without reservation.

Please encourage your friends, family and colleagues to join you today in adding their name to the Gurkha Justice cause by also signing up at Gurkha Justice Campaign.

With the support of people across the UK, who understand the huge contribution that the Gurkhas have made to our country, this is a fight we must win.

[SarzWix]

Thanks for the link PaulW, I've signed up.

[tootles]

I find this a difficult subject.
People seem to misunderstand the Ghurka position. They do not swear allegiance to the Queen, they are mercenaries. Yes, they have been fulfilling a useful role for many years, but they also serve alongside the armed forces of other countries too. The UK pays them the most, so that is where many wish to serve.
However, they are mercenaries.
Throughout Africa there are mercenaries, many of British descent. They are paid well to do a difficult and dangerous job - you won't find them fighting for the right to live in the regimes they overthrough. The Ghurkas are far better off staying in a country they understand and know, with their huge extended families with their pensions than being stuck in a tower block on a council estate with no-one who speaks their language or understands their culture. They are a proud and brave race who deserve better.
It is a nice but misguided fight, fought by nice but misguided people.

[rogesse]

OH & I saw this link on another forum a few days ago and signed up then - makes you ashamed of this country

[PAULW]

are far better off staying in a country they understand and know, with their huge extended families with their pensions than being stuck in a tower block on a council estate with no-one who speaks their language or understands their culture.

TOOTLES
This could be said of the majority of asylum seekers and illegal imigrants who want to enter this country some of whom have no ties what so ever with us, the differance IMO is at least the gurkas were/are prepared to die in support of this country

[selfraising]

I've just signed it too. I think it's disgraceful.

[SarzWix]

So, shouldn't you be in France then Tootles? Your extended family aren't all there are they?
I don't imagine that every single Gurkha will want to uproot themselves and come here, but the ones who do shouldn't be denied the option because the Government have put such difficult conditions in place.
IMHO.

[shirlthegirl43]

I find this a difficult subject.
People seem to misunderstand the Ghurka position. They do not swear allegiance to the Queen, they are mercenaries. Yes, they have been fulfilling a useful role for many years, but they also serve alongside the armed forces of other countries too. The UK pays them the most, so that is where many wish to serve.
However, they are mercenaries.
Throughout Africa there are mercenaries, many of British descent. They are paid well to do a difficult and dangerous job - you won't find them fighting for the right to live in the regimes they overthrough. The Ghurkas are far better off staying in a country they understand and know, with their huge extended families with their pensions than being stuck in a tower block on a council estate with no-one who speaks their language or understands their culture. They are a proud and brave race who deserve better.
It is a nice but misguided fight, fought by nice but misguided people.

I see your point Tootles (and I don't usually comment on such threads) however, it is the right of each chap to decide whether he would prefer to stay in his own country or to live here. Nobody is saying they have to live here if given the right to.

Thanks for the link PaulW, I have joined up. I would prefer to share our country with people who have fought with us rather than those who come here and continue to fight against us.

[Glutton4...]

...I would prefer to share our country with people who have fought with us rather than those who come here and continue to fight against us.

I don't comment on threads like this either, however, that is a really great point!

[tootles]

I see your point Tootles (and I don't usually comment on such threads) however, it is the right of each chap to decide whether he would prefer to stay in his own country or to live here. Nobody is saying they have to live here if given the right to.

The reason that so many illegal immegrants come to the UK each year is that they believe the streets are lined with gold and they will make their fortunes. When they are caught up with or realise that they were better off where they were they have the luxury of being repatriated at the UK's expense. When the Ghurkas find themselves in the same position they will be on a state pension and not much more - how many state pensioners do you know who can afford to fly to Nepal?

[tootles]

So, shouldn't you be in France then Tootles? Your extended family aren't all there are they?

IMHO.

Good God no, if they were I wouldn't need to be here!!!!

[NOG]

Every year lads swarm the Gurka selection camps to join up. And it has alway been that you served the Queen for 20 years and saved the pay. When your service is complete you are a rich man and buy a farm or keep your family with your pay and live on your pension.

They sign up for the Money, food, housing, medical and pension. That they would not get if they stayed at home. Living in Britian was never part of the deal.

[Alison Adams]

Gurkhas are an integral part of the regular British Army which means they are NOT mercenaries !
Also, as the campaign for the right to a fair pension and the right to live here after their military service is led by Gurkhas themselves, then I dont consider it misguided to support them.
I respect other peoples right to a different opinion, but thats mine.

[smallblueplanet]

...- how many state pensioners do you know who can afford to fly to Nepal?

Or France?

They've made a sacrifice I wouldn't make, yet I expect others to make for me. I'm appalled that they don't have the right to live here. I can't understand why they might want to, but that's their choice!

[bobleponge]

Civilians are also an integral part of the regular British army, but they are not soldiers.
Ghurka's are not British soldiers, and thus, like the French Foreign Legion, can be considered as mercenaries.
The real difference between a Ghurka soldier and a mercenary however, is that the Ghurka soldier signs a contract between himself and the British army, and serves it, generally for 22 years, wearing the uniform of the regiment to which he is attached.
I found it disgusting whilst I was serving, and still find it so now that the Ghurka's didnt have the rights to the same pension as myself, nor the right, after giving the best 22 years of their lives, to live in the country they served.
When they finish their careers, they receive a military pension, less than a regular solder but certainly more than a basic state pension, and so would survive here without becoming a burden on the state.
Until just recently, the last serving Victoria Cross holder in the British army was a Ghurka, Major Rambuhader Limbu, clearly a brave man, who risked his own life to save the life of British soldiers from the Gloucestershire Regiment. Perhaps a man like that should have been given the right to live in this country at the end of his 35 years of service, all with the British army?