The BBC reports:
Gurkhas have joined in the election campaign in Maidstone to support the Liberal Democrat candidate for Ann Widdecombe’s former Kent seat. Lib Dem candidate Peter Carroll set up the Gurkha Justice Campaign, which last year won the right for the Gurkhas to settle in the UK.
Mr Carroll said the Gurkhas, who are based in Folkestone, travelled to Maidstone on Saturday. “They brought all their musicians and dancers and it was like a carnival.”
Readers of the best-selling Why Vote Lib Dem book will have had chance to read a short article by Madan Kumar Gurung, a former Gurkha soldier, who offers his reasons for supporting Nick Clegg’s party on 6th May:
I owe my right to live in Britain to the success of the Gurkha Justice Campaign. I served twenty-four years as a Gurkha in the British Army but was not allowed to live here because I retired before 1997. Now all that has changed.
The Liberal Democrats were the party that really took up this issue in the country and in Parliament. I asked my local Liberal Democrat, Peter Carroll, to help when I met him in 2007. … Nick Clegg was the main figure behind the Commons vote which was crucial in fiorcing the government to change its mind.
I fought for Britain. The Liberal Democrats fought for me and I stand with them.
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5 Comments
Whilst I supported the Campaign, is it appropriate that any political party campaign should be so intimately associated with armed forces?
ex military forces, I think that’s a crucial difference
I don’t. They remain associated with serving Gurkhas.
Alec,
The Conservatives have long been very much associated with the armed forces’ vote. I see nothing wrong with that – if (retired) members of HM Forces want to voice a political opinion, and make it from their standpoint as a soldiers/sailors/airmen, it’s really up to them, even if I strongly disagree with what they have to say. Unless you’re suggesting that we’re using the Gurkhas (and the evidence doesn’t really point to this), then I can’t see what your objection is.
Now if only you could get Joanna Lumley on your side – you would be home and dry!
Has anyone asked her?