I received an email from a friend over the weekend, not unusual, but for a change I had time to follow up on it, the email was a forward on of an email from Joanna Lumley at the Gurkha Justice Campaign.
I have been appalled at the treatment of these guys for a number of years, but have done very little about and indeed many people voice their support and do very little about it, so I decided to visit the site www.gurkhajustice.org.uk and sign up on the petition. Below is a copy of the email that was sent back:
Thank you so much for signing the Gurkha Justice petition, and joining our
campaign.
Already, tens of thousands of people have signed: an extraordinary response
in support of an extraordinary group of people.
We demand the full, fundamental change in law that will allow all retired
Gurkhas the right to live here. The Government's decision on 25th April
goes nowhere near far enough. Many thousands of Gurkhas who served our
country will still be refused the right to live here.
The High Court demanded new rules from the Government. The Government's
response has been awful. We must be clear. We want the right for all
Gurkhas who have served this country to live here if they wish.
To make the biggest possible impact, we really need more people to sign up:
lots more. We need to form one of the biggest ever campaigns to force the
to change their mind and to show our support for the Gurkha cause.
Your support for the campaign is a fantastic boost: thank you so much. But,
if possible, I need to ask you to help to encourage others to sign.
Firstly, ask all of your friends and colleagues to sign up to the Gurkha
Justice Campaign at www.gurkhajustice.org.uk - please do forward them this
email, or email or contact them directly yourself.
And secondly, you can now download a petition form for signing from
www.gurkhajustice.org.uk/gurkha_campaign_petition_form.pdf. Please download
and print some copies, and ask friends and colleagues who have not signed
on line to sign up. Please do pass it round (some friends of mine have run
street stalls asking people for their signatures - I'm not asking you to
go that far!) and return completed sheets to me at the address on the form
as soon as possible.
I will be in touch again in the near future with other ways you can help:
I hope you will be able to do so.
Finally - thank you again for your support. Together, we must finally right
this wrong.
With warmest good wishes,
Joanna Lumley
for the Gurkha Justice Campaign
I felt the least we could do was to help raise awareness by:
- Posting this BLOG
- Putting a link on the front end of the site
- Emailing our members
- Emailing our friends and business contacts and encouraging them to do the same
Harry