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fpbSince the Roman Empire, the willingness to march and sweat and shed blood for a country has been rewarded with citizenship. So it is with the French Foreign Legion, so, I gather, with the US armed forces.
The British, however, still need to reach to the level of civilization and self-respect of the ancient Romans.
The Gurkhas are one of the elite units of the British Army and indeed of any army in the world. Their claim to be "the bravest of the brave" has never been seriously contested, their presence on the battlefield spreads terror among the enemy (that was certainly the case with Argentinian troops in the Falklands War) and their importance to Britain is such that when the independence of the Indian Empire was negotiatied sixty years ago, one of the conditions was that Britain could go on recruiting Gurkhas. There was no such condition for any other Indian unit, not even for the respected and feared Sikhs.
And yet, no Gurkha soldier who served before 1997 is allowed, not only to become a British citizen, but even only to reside in Britain.
The current British government, already sufficiently degraded and unpopular, has further shown itself incapable of learning by delivering a final, crushing "no" to a campaign to remedy this obvious wrong. They added insult to injury by making up a scare story about 100,000 Nepalis coming to settle in Britain. Apart from appealing to the lowest instincts of the worst kind of voter, this is ridiculous: given the armies of more-or-less legal immigrants present in Britain now, many of whom despise her laws and her values and treat it as occupied land, is it really so bad to welcome a number of Nepalis who have given lifelong evidence of their loyalty to the flag under which they enlisted?
One of the elderly gentlemen who demonstrated for their right to settle wore a Victoria Cross. Look it up.
EDITED IN Parliament has just given the Government a bloody nose over the issue (April 29). Ayo Gorkhare!
The British, however, still need to reach to the level of civilization and self-respect of the ancient Romans.
The Gurkhas are one of the elite units of the British Army and indeed of any army in the world. Their claim to be "the bravest of the brave" has never been seriously contested, their presence on the battlefield spreads terror among the enemy (that was certainly the case with Argentinian troops in the Falklands War) and their importance to Britain is such that when the independence of the Indian Empire was negotiatied sixty years ago, one of the conditions was that Britain could go on recruiting Gurkhas. There was no such condition for any other Indian unit, not even for the respected and feared Sikhs.
And yet, no Gurkha soldier who served before 1997 is allowed, not only to become a British citizen, but even only to reside in Britain.
The current British government, already sufficiently degraded and unpopular, has further shown itself incapable of learning by delivering a final, crushing "no" to a campaign to remedy this obvious wrong. They added insult to injury by making up a scare story about 100,000 Nepalis coming to settle in Britain. Apart from appealing to the lowest instincts of the worst kind of voter, this is ridiculous: given the armies of more-or-less legal immigrants present in Britain now, many of whom despise her laws and her values and treat it as occupied land, is it really so bad to welcome a number of Nepalis who have given lifelong evidence of their loyalty to the flag under which they enlisted?
One of the elderly gentlemen who demonstrated for their right to settle wore a Victoria Cross. Look it up.
EDITED IN Parliament has just given the Government a bloody nose over the issue (April 29). Ayo Gorkhare!
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 11:23 pm (UTC)