Saturday, 23 May 2009

Old Fossil Discovered



"You got stiffie, Private?"

"How you think my medals stay up?!"
Posted by ulaca at 09:47
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7 comments:

smogsblog said...

A little more respect due I feel. The guy on the left is Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung, VC, and the one on the right is Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun, VC.

23 May 2009 10:28
ulaca said...

Smoggie, if it wasn't serious, it wouldn't make a good joke.

23 May 2009 15:00
Private Beach said...

Why does it always take the British government so long to do the right thing? Ex-FE POWs in Hong Kong, BNO passport holders with no other nationality, and now the Gurkhas - all get their rights eventually, but only after years of foot-dragging.

23 May 2009 22:27
Troika said...

The result, although fair, will in the near future spell the end of Gurkhas in the British Army, and leave a destitute country even more impoverished as there is now no reason for Nepal to send its finest away.

Lady fart-nasty sums up this view quite nicely in a letter to The Time last week:

Sir, Amid all the sentimentality surrounding the Gurkhas and their right to settle in this country, certain points appear to have been overlooked (“Gurkha veterans to be told they can settle in Britain”, Times Online, May 21). In 1947 a tripartite agreement was signed between Nepal, India and Great Britain concerning the recruitment, pay and pensions of Gurkhas. According to this agreement, Great Britain agreed to repatriate Gurkhas to Nepal on their reaching retirement. The reason for this was chiefly economic: Nepal agreed to allow her brightest and best to be recruited into a foreign army on the condition that Nepal reaped the benefit of money being sent home during a soldier’s service and, equally importantly, the pension that the soldier would receive on retirement.

These men do not live in poverty on their return to their native land: their British army pensions make them extremely rich men, particularly in the hills, from where so many of them originally come. In the hills the houses of British ex-servicemen stand out from those who have never benefited from foreign service, often being the only homes to have running water and lavatories and they serve as a beacon of excellence to others.

In addition, the Gurkha Welfare Trust exists to assist ex-Gurkhas, their widows and dependants in times of hardship. Projects such as footpaths, bridges and water installation that benefit entire villages and communities are run by ex-Gurkhas, whose technical expertise is invaluable to those among whom they live.

If all retired Gurkhas settle in the United Kingdom there will be inevitable consequences. First, will the Gurkha Welfare Trust continue to attract the large charitable income that it now enjoys, and if not, what will happen to those too old or infirm to move here? Second, why should Nepal continue to allow recruitment of its brightest and fittest young men to a foreign army if it gains no financial benefit from so doing?

I fear that the greed of ex-Gurkhas, allied to the foolishness of Joanna Lumley and the sentimentality of the British public, may result in the death of the Brigade of Gurkhas, which has been of such value to both Britain and Nepal for more than 150 years.

Lady Hunt-Davis

Warminster, Wilts

25 May 2009 10:59
Troika said...

Altough she may have gone a bit far describing it as "greed".

25 May 2009 11:08
ulaca said...

I suspect the point of using "greed" was to apply the same standards that she would have applied had it been a purely internal (British) issue. Otherwise, she would have fallen into the same trap she accuses others of falling into, that of being condescending to the Gurkhas, sentimentally imagining that they are free from the vices of any other group.

25 May 2009 11:54
Troika said...

A nice point, well put.

25 May 2009 14:17

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