UK NEWS

MARCH OF 3,000 GURKHAS

Gurkhas are forced to petition for citizen rights

Thursday March 29,2007

By Mark Reynolds

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(2)

FOR CENTURIES they have bravely fought – and died – alongside‑homegrown British soldiers in fierce conflicts throughout the world.

But yesterday 3,000 Gurkhas were fighting a new battle.

They were forced to march on Downing Street to seek the same pension and citizenship rights as their British counterparts.

In a crusade backed by the Daily Express, the Nepalese troops des-cribed as “bravest of the brave” after winning 6,500 decorations for their courage including 13 Victoria Crosses are now battling for equal rights.

They were dismayed after a recent Government ruling meant citizenship rights and fairer pensions would apply only to currently serving Gurkhas.

The decision leaves thousands of the most vulnerable Gurkha veterans in abject poverty. Some will be forced to survive on just £23 a month or nothing, campaigners claim.

The veterans are opposed to the 1997 “Dividing Line”, which denies Gurkhas who retired before then the right to live in the UK or have help with their pensions.

And massing in Parliament Square yesterday, the soldiers, many wearing their war medals, held placards reading “Mr Blair give us what we deserve” and “Equal pensions for all Gurkhas”.

The protest was led by Captain Gary Ghale, 52, who served between 1972 and 1997. He said: “We feel let down by the British government. We are not asking for much, just fairness and equality.” After laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, a small delegation handed in a personal letter for the Prime Minister at Downing Street.

TOALL OUR ARMED FORCES

02.04.08, 12:01am

ANYTHING that smacks of Britishness... Loyalty, Service to Country, Service to The Queen, National flags, The Proms.. and especially "The Ghurkas"--a group of men that evoke such powerful feelings from the "True British" etc etc.. is loathed by, and is to be stamped out by New Labour, according to their Marxist doctrine. The entire ethic of post Cold War globalisation, indeed, is profoundly anti-national. The multinational corporation, like Marx’s worker, “has no country”: the modern international corporate executive is more at home in an airport departure lounge or a Hilton hotel than in a village pub. The last thing you want when trying to dismantle Queen and Country, are a bunch of fearsome Ghurka warriors stalking their traitorous leaders..

The BNP would guarantee that the Gurkhas and their families would be given leave to remain in Britain.

Real Racism in action thanks to New Labour:

http://www.bnp.org.uk/2008/02/29/real-rascism-in-action/

• Posted by: NoisySiamese • Report Comment

MARCH OF 3,000 GURKHAS

29.03.07, 9:10am

Once again this Article well and truely highlights British Governments attitude, (of what appears to me as a middle finger jesture,) to those who fought, got wounded, also dependents of those who got wounded or gave their lives protecting the interests of Britain....
Yes I know and have a right to feel disgust.......And I soon found this out when needing Help to overcome certain violations of my Human Rights, I found, (as a person who served in the British Army on active service in the Malayan Jungles during the 1950's ,) that no help/support was available from this Labour Government/sponsored parties...
As such the welbeing lifestyle of myself/family also that of other known former servicemen, (who suffered similar violations as myself of their Human rights,) have been greatlty affected by the selfish, greedy, not interested attitude of the Labour government over the last ten years...

• Posted by: stantheman • Report Comment