Government defeated in Gurkha vote

Hereford

EXCELLENT! This was a dispicable move on the part of the Government.

Nick

All those people on a previous post saying that Cameron should have focused on the 50p tax rate at PMQs today and not the Ghurkas must be feeling pretty stupid now.

Yarnesfromhorsham

Doh - is NuLabour in the real world. Court of moral opinion and natural justice has found them out again. These men served this country and yet a crowd of labour politicians sought to stop entry yet allow the dregs of other countries free access.

Silent Hunter

Brilliant news.

I can't think of a better way to say - "Sod Off Gordon"

TomTom

Pleased to see Cameron did give Clegg credit....that too is a marked contrast with Macbeth

Mark

Nick,

I agree. The main news items today are this vote (for us political types) and flu (for the popular press). Cameron covered both. It's mainly about getting on the evening news. The Commons know Brown's bust.

TrevorsDen

Correct Nick.

The other point is that the evening news will have pictures of Joanna Lumley flanked by Clegg and Cameron and all of them slagging off Brown.

Priceless. Cameron is a genius.

I am not sure but I presume the LibDems had a chance to put this opn the order paper because it was their turn.

Meantime Huw Edwards is in Basra waving bye bye to our troops. Maybe he could stay there.

Constant reader

Nick - beat me to it. So must the decreasingly-in-touch-with-the-plot Iain Dale who wanted him to lead with the resignation petition on the no.10 website. 2 big stories of the day are flu and defeat over gurkhas and DC bought into both of them. genius.

Liz Brown

A wonderful victory for decency -

Baba o'Rielly

JAMES MCLAREN TAKE NOTE:

All those people on a previous post saying that Cameron should have focused on the 50p tax rate at PMQs today and not the Ghurkas must be feeling pretty stupid now.

James Purnell c/o Fraser Nelson, 22 Old Queen St, SW1

But those two old guys in wheelchairs are obviously going to go straight on incapacity benefit, so why let them in?

C Powell

Well, I hope the government now does - for once - the decent thing. One reason, I suspect, why people feel so strongly about this is that they know the government has let in all sorts of riff-raff who not only have not fought for this country but have absolutely no loyalty to us and in some cases want to fight against us and harm us. This government has also given British citizenship to people with criminal records and is seemingly incapable and/or unwilling to deport those who should not be here. The contrast with how they are treating the Gurkhas is striking.

And if the government do nothing, I hope Cameron promises to reverse this decision when he comes to power.

Fergus Pickering

Bravo to our MPs (who have had a bad press lately);I felt ashamed of my country till now. And a mighty gong for the divine Joanna Lumley.

cuffleyburgers

Well done Cameron and Clegg (and purdey)

Well well, a vote for decency and hopefully the overdue righting of a wrong. So rare under this govt as to be noteworthy.

Brown's pathetic failure to read the situation was "not only wrong but a mistake", and is further evidence of t'were needed that his judgement is totally shot.

As indeed he needs to be.

Verity

James Purnell c/o Fraser Nelson, 22 Old Queen St, SW1 - But those two old guys in wheelchairs are obviously going to go straight on incapacity benefit, so why let them in?

Because they fought for us when they were young and strong?

Bluebottle

Brown is now like a playground bully of whom no one is frightened any more.

Some day soon those who he used to victimise will gang up and give him the thrashing he richly deserves.

TGF UKIP

The photo should provide an interesting caption competition opportunity.

Nicholas

I could not believe Brown opposed this on the grounds of cost having presided over 12 years of uncontrolled and illegal immigration which has introduced foreign criminal gangs to the UK. Clearly New Labour don't see the Gurkhas as a Labour-voting client group.

Now what we need is for the Gurkhas to replace the useless, not fit for purpose police of Brown, Smith & Co.

Calls in the House for Brown and Smith to resign I hear? We seem to be on the doorstep of momentous times - is Britain about to have its "wall came down" moment?

Laura

Can we please have a list of those MP's who voted against allowing the Gurkhas right of settlement. Name and shame these despicable individuals NOW.

Paul C

There is surely a simple answer to the Gurkha problem. I presume that Gurkhas come here because life will be better for them if they succeed. But in doing this surely they leave their relatives behind to come to a country where living is expensive.

Why not then offer to assist Gurkhas in their OWN country, where I would imagine things cost LESS? Would this not be a more humane solution than leaving them with the dilemma of having to leave their homes to come to the UK?

David Lindsay

Anyone who still doubts the sheer pointlessness of the Tories need look no further than the fact that they have allowed the Lib Dems to make the running on the Gurkha issue.

The Tories caused the problem in the first place, but they do seem to be on side now.

So the Gurkhas should be settled in the ten safest Tory wards in the country, and the consequences observed in a reality television series narrated by Joanna Lumley.

The Home Counties, and the gin and jag belts of the North and the Midlands, would suddenly have some VERY efficient traffic wardens and lollipop men…

Ian C

James Purnell c/o Fraser Nelson, 22 Old Queen St, SW1 - aka 'So far right you can't tell if he's all there or not'.

Because being retired he will not be entitled to incapacity benefit which is for the working age population!

And if he asks for carer's support as he gets older, then he deserves it as he cared for the rest of us while serving in our forces.

Susan Hill

I am going to be shot down in flames for this and please do not misinterpret what I am saying. I just am not sure WHY these Gurkhas want to come and live here. Nepal is a beautiful country. A friend of mine married a Nepalese man and he came to live here. After 4 years he hated it so much that it was either divorce or they went to live in Nepal. They did and they are now happy there - and still happily married. HIs 2 brothers served as Gurkhas but they had no wish to come to live in the UK either. So, it is not that I am against their coming.. I just don`t know why they would want to.

Barry The Man Cades

Interesting though that they still turned over enough stones to find over two hundred worthless lumps of new labour detritus to vote against the LIb Dem proposal.

pat mcgroin

'The photo should provide an interesting caption competition opportunity.'

read on a blog, could be oxnoxio's, something like
'dangerous illegal immigrants flanked by armend police'.

Andrew

Peerage (for absolutely fabulous work) for La Lumley - not least because she'll certainly duff up DC if he doesn't fix this once he's in office.

Oscar

Second TrevorsDen and Constant Reader - stroke of genius from Cameron today. He looked every inch the leader on tonight's C4 News standing next to the magnificent Joanna. Gary Gibbon kept repeating it was the kind of photo op politicians dream of. Indeed. Far better than looking red faced at PMQs banging on about the economy. A humanitarian and strategic triumph.

Augustus

What a shambles this government is. You seem to get a bigger welcome in Britain these days if you are a a pistol-packing Libyan, a suicidally fundamentalist Algerian, or a Somali rapist, than if you're a plucky, ever-cheerful, fiercely loyal little Johnny Gurkha.

Nigel Utting

My father served with the Gurkhas during WWII. The memory of their bravery and their absolute loyalty stayed with him for the rest of his life. Thank you to Joanna Lumley, Nick Clegg and David Cameron for their efforts to overturn the government's shoddy treatment of ex-Gurkha servicemen applying to settle in the UK. Thank you, too, to the Labour MPs who had the backbone to vote for today's Lib Dem motion.

Archie

Top marks to all those who voted and agitated for these superb people! It has been nothing short of scandalous that this government would allow all and sundry in and not the Gurkhas. Note the dignity of those be-medalled gentlemen with the G20 and Tamil protesters! Gong for Miss Lumley!

mac

You would know about the pointlessness of a national political party, wouldn't you, Mr Lindsay?
How's it going for your British People's Alliance? Membership growing, is it?

Julianlzb87

Laura...
these are the "innocent" *
Dianne Abbott
Ian Cawsey
Harry Cohen
Jeremy Corbyn
Paul Farrelly
Mark Fisher
Neil Gerrard
Kate Hoey
Kelvin Hopkins
Joan Humble
Glenda Jackson
John McDonnell
Shona McIsaac
Andrew Macinlay
Gordon Marsden
Bob Marshall Andrews
Julie Morgan
Nick Palmer
Stephen Pound
Nick Rainsford
Andy Reed
Linda Riordan
Alan Simpson
Andrew Smith
Paul Truswell
Keith Vaz
Robert Wareing
Mike Wood

* Well... sort of.

Nicholas

Paul C your argument could be applied to any of the immigrant communities New Labour has grown in our midst. Strange isn't it that socialists are in favour of filling Britain with ethnic groups from all over the world and celebrating their cultures above our own but when it comes to the loyal fighting men of Nepal, so representative of Britain's old army, Britain's old Empire and Britain's colonial wars, their enthusiasm for diversity and multi-culturalism suddenly wains?

Dyspeptic Curmudgeon

Further to Verity's comment, that the 'old guys' fought for us, the old guy in the picture at the top of this page is one of a very special group of Gurkhas. He's wearing a Victoria Cross.