The Ghurka Khukri takes aim at Gordon Brown

The Labour Government really isn't having a good time of it, the Mcbride debacle, Brown's hasty balls up of the expenses reform package and now the Ghurka's.

Yesterday the Government was defeated by a Liberal Democrat motion aimed at defeating the recent Government guidelines on which type of Ghurka had the right to settle in Britain. Under the regulations recently proposed, those Ghurka's who have retired from the British Army after 1997 are entitled to live in Britain. Those Ghurka's who retired from the British Army before 1997 are not entitled to live in Britain, thereby exclduing thousands of men who have been willing to sacrifice their lives and limbs for this country.


A High Court ruling last year decided that the regulations were unlawful and yesterday's Commons motion against the Government proves the disparity between Government thinking and the rest of the political spectrum.



Prior to yesterday's motion in the House of Commons, Phil Woolas thought that by allowing all those Ghurka's who have served Crown and Country a right of settlement in these Isles then a precedent would be established for allowing anyone who has served this country to settle here. Rather alarmist figures were qouted by the Minister of 100,000 foreign domiciled former servicemen of our Armed Forces would come over and settle here. If these figures are correct, is it really an issue?



The Government has tended to frame the debate within the usual confines of limiting immigration and reducing the burden upon tax payers. This is not an issue of finances, but one of morality. If an individual is prepared to serve this country and risk life and limb then it is only equitable that they are allowed to settle here, whether they have served the country for one year or twenty five years. Deciding how to reward bravery and commitment through the lens of dispassionate public accounting is just plain wrong.



The defeat of a Government by a Liberal Democrat motion is unheard of, particularly when a number of the Governments own MP's (twenty seven in total) sided with the opposition. Most pundits are already commenting that the authority of Gordon Brown within the Labour Party and Parliament is in terminal decline. Looking at the evidence it would be hard argue otherwise.



Sir Christopher Kelly, the Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life snubbed Gordon Brown when he was asked by the Prime Minister to quickly draw up a new system of declaring parliamentary expenses, preferring instead to wait until after the summer recess before releasing plans.

The need to speed the expenses debacle through as quickly as possible and the subsequent rebuffal by Sir Christopher are emblamatic of the Prime Ministers hasty blustering attitude to counter the terminal atrophy that has now set into his political muscle. Without McBride to deliver the kicking that Brown would have ordered against Sir Christopher, there is very little that Gordon can do now. As Peter Riddle in the Times has written, there is a stench of death reminiscent of Major's last days in Government now hanging over the Brown administration.

Should the Government face defeat in its bid to push through its expenses reform bill, now looking increasingly likely thanks to the Conservatives, then it really will be the end of PM Brown.