Oi Joanna Lumley: Keep Gurkha Mercenaries in Nepal!

I do not believe any Gurkhas should be allowed to come to this country at any age, retired or otherwise.

Right: The campaigner for the Gurkhas "rights" to settle in the UK, Joanna Lumley. The road to hell is paved with good intentions... retired Gurkhas can best be helped in Nepal.

These people are mercenaries, whom the MoD employs because they are cheaper to hire, so the blame for the situation as it has historically arisen lies with the MoD.

They get a good pension by Nepalese terms, still cheap for the MoD of course.

Although I am loathe to support any form of mercenary forces, if absolutely necessary here and now, then let their pensions be increased to UK standard and give them a gold standard health insurance too.

Ripping these people out of their homeland, Nepal, is not right.

No doubt in a few years their families will also be cajoled into claiming the "right" to come here and then we'll have more generations of rootless, culture-clash, chip-on-shoulder third generation immigrants with no sense of "loyalty."

So no, not a single Gurkha should come here.

Personally I think the hiring of mercenaries is wrong, but while it exists there are all sorts of things the tightwads at the MoD (who, remember send all our troops into battle without the correct body and transport armour) can do to make the lives of ex-servicemen in Nepal comfortable enough that we don't get more Asian "communities" over here.

And before a liberal moans, I will say this:

If it was wrong to 'colonise' India and other parts of Asia, then it also wrong to let all manner of Asians colonise vast areas of England and the other nations of these isles.

And before a blustering Colonel Bufton-Tufton moans, I will say this also:

Two wrongs do not make a right. By all means carry out any moral obligation to previous and existing Gurkha soldiers, but taking people out of their own homeland is not a good thing, and for short term gain and populist "patriotic" headlines you will create misery both here and in Nepal.

I like people who (to use the Godfather/Sopranos parlance) 'bust balls' of government ministers, and I think back in the mists of time I even liked The New Avengers (I've worn a bowler hat ever since!) and even the weird TV series Sapphire and Steel (ref Joanna Lumley, the pro-Gurkha campaigner), but we should look at the bigger picture here.

Multi-racism kills cultures and wrecks communities.

If people want to help the Nepalese (civilians and mercenaries) then help them in Nepal!