Gurkha veterans: should they stay? Updated following 2011 defence cuts

[monkey104]

I served in the army for 22 years as a military policeman and never once had to admonish a Gurkha.

If you spoke to one he was always polite, smartly dressed and called you 'Sir' even though I was a lowly corporal at the time.

I once gave a Gurkha a lift from Aldershot train station in the police car, to his barracks about 5 mile away after his train arrived late, but he begged me to drop him off about a mile before barracks as he did not wish the lift to be mistrued as him having been in trouble with the military police as it would bring dishonour to himself and the regiment.

After they were integrated in to the regular army and served in different units and in different roles they were still a credit.

I would gladly export a few of our less salubrious citizens in exchange for a handful of Gurkhas.

[taxman]

Instead of volunteering to fight for a foreign army why don't they remain at home and try to make their country a better place?

 

I find it odd that mercenaries for the British army are held in such high esteem by certain people but mercenaries for the enemy would be considered in a totally different light.

 

Imagine the furore if a British citizen chose to fight for a foreign country.....we'd call them traitors, but when mercenaries fight for us they are heroes...how come?

[mj.scuba]

Instead of volunteering to fight for a foreign army why don't they remain at home and try to make their country a better place?

 

I find it odd that mercenaries for the British army are held in such high esteem by certain people but mercenaries for the enemy would be considered in a totally different light.

 

Imagine the furore if a British citizen chose to fight for a foreign country.....we'd call them traitors, but when mercenaries fight for us they are heroes...how come?

 

If a British citizen goes to fight for the enemy, it won't be for financial reward, they already get their benefit cheques here while plotting our demise. More likely for ideological reasons, so are not really mercenaries, but certainly are traitors.

[Nagel]

Instead of volunteering to fight for a foreign army why don't they remain at home and try to make their country a better place?

 

They make their country a better place by sending their earnings back home to their family in Nepal. Gurkha pensions were the second highest earner of foreign income for the Nepalese government after tourism, but I suspect they are now the highest earner with the decline of tourism.

 

This is why granting UK residence for them and their families is wrong. The money that would once have gone back to Nepal and been spent there supporting the Nepalese economy will now be spent in here in the UK.

 

Good for us, but disastrous for Nepal.