Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A chance to right a great wrong

The Gurkha Justice Campaign. Click through now. Sign up.

A group of retired Gurkhas fighting for the right to settle in Britain have won their immigration test case at London's High Court.

They were challenging immigration rules which said that those who retired from the British Army before 1997 did not have an automatic right to stay.

Prominent supporter actress Joanna Lumley said it was a "chance to right a great wrong".

The government said it would now review all Gurkhas' cases.

The regiment moved its main base from Hong Kong to the UK in 1997 and the government had argued that Gurkhas discharged before that date were unlikely to have strong residential ties with the UK.
That last piece of (emboldened) legalistic bullshit makes me ashamed to be British. These men fought for us. They and their forebears have served our nation with immense valour for 200 years. Who gives a damn whether they have any residential ties with the UK. If they're good enough to die for us, they're good enough to live with us.

Please click through and sign up to this:
I, the undersigned, call for the Government to act immediately to change the law to allow all retired Gurkhas the right to stay in the UK, without reservation.


Via.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent!

Hope you don't mind, but I've linked to your post on my own post on this. Hopefully, it will get a few more signing up to this.

Peter Risdon said...

Thanks for the link, Julia. I've a mind to scatter leaflets with the web address on it down the pub. If people really knew about this, signatures would be in eight figures.

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of "justice" if they are being defrauded of their contractual rights. Otherwise it's a matter of generosity, or wisdom, or honour, or propriety or whatever.

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of "justice" if they are being defrauded of their contractual rights. Otherwise it's a matter of generosity, or wisdom, or honour, or propriety or whatever.

patently said...

*signed*. Thanks for the links, John & Julia.

There are two sorts of justice; legal justice and moral justice. This is the latter. Contractual rights are the former.

It is morally unjust to place these men in danger for our benefit, then refuse them a right of entry that we give away so liberally to others less deserving.