Be Excellent To Each Other

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8060607.stm

..about bloody time!!!

Yay even though most of them don't actually want to live in the UK, preferring instead to stay in Nepal where they can live in huge, beautiful houses because their Army pension makes them massively wealthy.

Hear hear.

Very true, but a landmark decision none the less.
Young Gurkhas fight tooth and nail for a very limited amount of places every year and i'm just pleased that now they are recognised for all they have done for the country.

This is something I am fairly ignorant about, anyone care to enlighten me about it?

I'm waiting for someone on Speak You're Branes to say something like 'so can our lads settle in Nepal once they're retired' or something equally as retarded.

As far as I can work out the Gurkhas have been a vital part of the british army for years. My grandad always heralded them as the heroes of WW2 (small little fellows who like to cut peoples throats when they were sleeping).

Our Gov recently decided to not let them live here, so a court case was started and Joanna Lovely was rallying to let them settle here.

And they recently won.

I could be completely wrong about some of that of course, but it's what I can gather from what I've seen.

Pretty much correct on all counts.

My grandad used to always say that they were the only people that the Japanese were scared of when it came to jungle fighting.

This should explain the rest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2786991.stm

Grandad had a Gurkha knife. Nasty looking curved thing he would never let us touch. He did explain why it was shaped the way it was. (fits like a neck tie...)

We would literally send these wee buggers into people's camps as they were stealthy and un-detectable and noone in those camps would

1. know what had hit them
2. ever wake up.

Aye, here we go. Apparently he traded it at the end of the war for his standard issue knife.

That's a pair of scissors.

or a booby-trapped boomerang.

haha, it does kind of look like some garden shears

I think all you need to know about this issue is that the Daily Mail is in favour of them being immigrants.

The Daily Mail put out a pro-immigration front page. That's how much of a no brainer it was the government missed completely.

What made me the most angry was watching a parade in respect of those who have died in Afghanistan.

Right at the front of the crowd, some even in wheelchairs as they were elderly were the Gurkhas paying their respects to those killed.

Some had travelled accross the country to be there, too.

And there was our great old Gov, trying to fucking kick them out because they have no place here.

Absolutely sickening tbh.

There seems to be some people thinking that this was started by the government trying to make it harder for them to stay here, which isn't the case. They've actually let more gurkhas stay than were previously allowed, but, until today, not all of them.

See this little FAQ from last month -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/2 ... t-uk-army1

I'm in agreement that they should be allowed to stay here after serving in our army - seems like a complete no-brainer to me - but this fuss wasn't started by the government trying to revoke any rights they had had previously, at least as far as I understand it.

Gurkhas are awesome and all of the time I've spent around them (not in battle, natch) has shown to be highly honourable blokes who risk life and limb to fight for a country that isn't even their own.

About bloody time this ruling came about.

"Richard Gray" of Manchester, I salute you!



When I get my hands on that thim fella, I'll fucking teach him to like Gurkhas.

I hope this means we start seeing loads of little Ghurka doormen in clubs.

Well they've got balls the size of melons. This is one of the coolest things I have ever read. And, shows what a complete pussy I am haha.

I know nothing of the Gurkha history, and mean no offence, but haven't you just described a mercenary there?

If you add 'for whoever's willing to pay the biggest wedge', perhaps.

I was wondering that. If we'd paid a merc company to fight in a war for us, would we offer them settlement rights?

I hope this doesn't sound too conservative but I'd rather have people living in my country who were prepared to fight to defend it and risk their lives than a bunch of work shy dole sponging chavs with a chip on their shoulders.

IIRC in the USA you can actually get a visa by joining the army and serving the mandatory list time.

Not really any of my concern, being a foreign, but I can think of greater injustices than those visited upon paid mercenaries who sign up to kill for money and are aware of the terms of their enlistment.

I know that in the French Foreign Legion, recruits can apply for French citizenship after three years of good conduct and service, or more expeditiously if wounded in battle.

Miss Malabar is currently unemployed and has been on Jobseeker's allowance. She went into the Job Centre the other day to tell them she'd found a job, and the lady at the desk couldn't believe it; she hadn't heard anybody say that in four weeks.

I'm not sure whether that says more about how utterly useless the Job Centre is in general, or how really fucking scummy the people around here are.

Is she becoming a Gurkha?

I believe so, yes. She's certainly got hurting me down to a fine art, after managing to hit me in the eye with my own phone yesterday evening.

They're a formal regiment (or whatev) of the British army and have been for close to two centuries. Also they're not paid substantially more than the equivalent rate for any other soldier doing the same work, which is one of the technical requirements to being a mercenary.

Every area has a part like that. People who are unemployable, basically. They're benefitted out the arse and would need to make about 70k a year to cover what they claim for. When they have all the skill of a broken egg.

As years have gone on people have become too expectant. What we need is another war (and I really hate to say that) to make everyone appreciate the stupid small things in life. My nana and grandad didn't have a pot to piss in. I remember once when we were over there (visiting) my grandad was proud as punch, telling me he was absolutely loaded. On the way back I remember saying to my mum "fucking hell, rock on grandad.. I didnt know he had loads of cash stashed away !" and mum replied "silly old sod. Hes got about two grand".

The way he was going on you would have thought the poor old sod had won the lottery

4 kids they raised. My grandad spent two years in a german POW camp and my nan's hair went grey overnight when the bombing started. They scrimped and scraped their entire lives and had fuck all to show for it. But they were the happiest two people I have ever met.

It really used to make me laugh going over there and they would force my mum to come back with eggs (with shit on, my grandad kept chickens) and like 200 rolls of toilet paper. Mum used to say to my grandad "I dont need any this time dad" and he'd turn around and say "well, you never know !"

That's the whole mentality they lived under. That you never knew where your next meal was going to come from or how much life could change overnight and leave you screwed. And that whole "get out there and get it done" attitude came from having to live during wartime.

People like that don't exist much anymore

Yes, we need another 6 million people murdered and an entire continent bombed to shit. That's much better than a few people on benefits taking the piss.

Well that wasn't exactly what I meant.

War is a quick way of saying "fuckloads of people murdering each other for the heinous crime of being, for example, a bit foreign", is it not?

I thought that was common knowledge, and they still do it now (well, ten years ago, when I talked to one of them).
Every time they clean their knife they nick themselves on the end of the thumb with it. Nutters.

I didn't realise that until today either. I may have been told it before and forgotten it though, as part of a spiel I read about how Dune's Fremen are a carefully crafted mish-mash of historic tribal and guerilla fighters.

You tell me. Personally I thought WW2 was about stopping a derranged german who was hellbent on destroying the jews and anyone who didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes. There's a difference to war with purpose and war for the sake of money and greed.

But any way. My comment wasn't so much that I would like to see a war and thousands of people die, but more of people appreciating life a lot more when they have had to go through hardship. IE - it wasn't literal it was just me moaning like a pensioner about the state the country is in.

Nothing more, nothing less. So I don't feel the need to argue over it

Well I do! You .... you have a silly hat, and your cats are easily confused.