Justice for Ghurkas

I would love to know what it is about the Gurkhas which really brasses off this Government. Someone in power really has a downer on them.

These are a bunch of lads who fought for us whenever we needed them and have probably done a lot more for Britain than most of the the political pygmies and benefit scroungers we are lumbered with in Westminster; yet when it comes to letting them live here then suddenly a Catch 22 immigration policy, which does not seem to apply to anyone else, pops up just for Gurkhas.

We have terror suspects, national security threats, foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, you name it and we got it, all swanning around, many living off the state - that is me and you by the way - and we can't get rid of them.

If we deport them the either their human rights are going to be infringed in some way only a lawyer on a fat fee could ever understand or it would mean sending them back to some country where terror suspects and criminals are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Whichever it is they are still here and lawyers are still getting rich feasting on a diet of appeals - which again we are all paying for.

Yet when it comes to lads who have fought in our name and can rack up 13 VCs with another 13 VCs for British officers in Gurkha regiments topping off a host of other medals then it is a different matter.

A Government who can't even tell you to the nearest 10 million what the UK population is, so pathetic are our border controls, suddenly comes down like a ton of bricks on the Gurkhas.

We have even had the immigration minister - yes we do have one - Phil Woolas telling us that if we let in the Gurkhas it would set a precedent and open the floodgates to thousands, if not millions more people around the world who would want to come in on the same legal basis.

Ministers really do speak fluent cobblers and what is really sad, they actually think we believe them.

It is not just the World Wars where the Gurkhas have been at our side, they served in the Falklands, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as holding up our end as UN peacekeepers in Kosovo, Bosnia and East Timor. They were even used as the protection squad for Prince Harry when he was in Afghanistan recently.

If you want to back the Gurkhas - and it seems only this Government doesn't - then you can sign a petition on No 10's website by clicking here which is http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ghurka1/ just in case it does not work or you can join the Gurkha Justice Campaign by clicking here which is http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk/. You can then sign their petition and you will even get an e-mail of thanks from Joanna Lumley.

You also get an e-mail from No 10, thankfully not from Gordon personally, and, for a change, without any scurrilous remarks. The e-mail is just to confirm you exist and as my computer seems to have its own view of what to do with anything from Downing Street - it put it in the junk mail folder - it might be worth checking there in case your computer has similar good taste.

This Government has cornered the market when it comes to shabby but even by their low standards this has plumbed new depths.