Paying debt at last

Oct 5 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

FOR men of a certain age, Joanna Lumley is top tottie... the thinking man’s crumpet no less.

So it was good to see her on TV the other day flashing those piano-key gnashers of hers and getting all emotional about Britain’s Gurkha heroes.

The TV star — every inch the avenger — punched the air in triumph after a judge ruled ministers had acted illegally by preventing the Nepalese soldiers from settling in Britain.

I don’t mind admitting I have a bit of a thing for Ms Lumley, but as heartening as it was to see her looking absolutely fabulous on the steps of the High Court, it was a sight we should never have witnessed. Indeed, the very fact that the Government forced these war heroes into a protracted legal battle is nothing short of a national scandal.

Ms Lumley, whose father fought alongside Gurkhas during the Second World War, had threatened to relinquish her British citizenship had the case been lost. But when Mr Justice Blake ruled that the UK owed the war veterans a “moral debt of honour” Ms Lumley, ever the diplomat, simply declared: “I am so proud of British justice.”

Given the circumstances, that was remarkably generous of her.

But while she may be proud of the eventual outcome, she can surely take no pride in the knowledge that the Government was prepared to wash its hands of men who had bloodied theirs to protect British interests.

To this day Gurkhas are recruited from Nepal, but fight loyally for Britain in conflicts all over the world. During the two World Wars, 43,000 of them lost their lives.

Problems arose in 1997 when the UK handed sovereignty of Hong Kong, which had been the Gurkhas’ base, back to China.

The UK became their new “home” but ministers argued that those who retired before 1997 had no right to settle here because they had failed to demonstrate “strong ties” to Britain.

That, in my view, was the ultimate insult. Whether the decision was made on purely financial grounds or was plain, old-fashioned racism, I have no idea. Either way, it was unjust.

Ironically, it meant that after the Falklands War the UK offered shelter to any islander wishing to settle here yet denied it to those who had fought so bravely to liberate them.

One of those men was Lance Corporal Rai, who was seriously injured during the final assault on Port Stanley.

At the High Court earlier this week he expressed his delight but he also revealed that, during the course of the legal action, seven of his Gurkha colleagues had died.

They, too, had hoped to make the UK their home. But for them, the “moral debt” remains unpaid. For that, the Government should hang its head in shame.