I AM writing to you to draw your attention to a gross injustice. Gurkhas have served this nation loyally for nearly 200 years. On Friday the British government kicked these loyal servants in the teeth – and not for the first time.

How can men who have spilt blood for this country be denied the right to live in it?

To add insult to injury, this comes at a time when the government has virtually no control over our borders.

Immigrants without any connection or right to live in the UK flood into the country – yet the honourable Gurkhas are left to rot.

The immigration minister, Phil Woolas, declares that allowing all Gurkhas the right to settle in the country would, essentially, open the floodgates, with up to 100,000 Gurkhas being allowed to live in the UK.

This comes from a Labour minister whose government has left the floodgates wide open, allowing many times more than 100,000 immigrants to enter the country. The sheer hypocrisy of this man leaves me utterly speechless.

As Joanna Lumley so eloquently pointed out, the conditions put forward by the government in order for Gurkhas who served before 1997 to stay in the UK, the so-called five bullet points, are a complete whitewash. Very few Gurkhas fit these criteria.

I am also concerned with the message this sends to all who serve in the British armed forces, be they Nepalese, British or from the Commonwealth. Are only medal winners and officers deemed worthy soldiers? Have you only adequately served your country if you receive a Victoria Cross? How do you measure one serviceman against another?

This is of particular concern to me as I hope to go to Sandhurst after university.


GARY BRIAN BELCHER, Enfield Road, Oakdale