GURKHA CAMPAIGNERS DENOUNCE PROPOSED CUTS

Save the Gurkha Campaign
www.savethegurkhas.co.uk

Peter Carroll, the man behind Joanna Lumley’s successful high profile campaign for Gurkha rights has slammed rumoured cuts in the number of serving Gurkhas.

Reacting to rumours that several hundred Gurkhas may face compulsory redundancy, Peter Carroll (pictured here with Joanna Lumley), who lives in Folkestone, home town of the Gurkhas said, ‘These cuts are wrong for the individual Gurkhas, wrong for the Brigade of Gurkhas, wrong for the Army, wrong for the UK as a whole and wrong for the long standing bond between Britain and Nepal.  We are at war in Afghanistan, Argentina is sabre rattling over the Falklands and Iran is a hugely destabilising influence in one of the most important regions of the world. 

This is not a time to be cutting some of our finest soldiers’.

There has been much media comment saying that the Gurkhas vulnerability to cuts could be attributable to Joanna Lumley’s campaign.  Peter Carroll angrily rejects these claims.  Peter said, ‘Joanna and I fought a campaign to get Gurkha ‘old timers’ the right to live in the country that they were prepared to fight for and possibly die for.  We stand by that campaign absolutely.  That issue has no bearing on these current rumoured cuts.  The Army is claiming that because Gurkhas can now serve for longer, that there are too many.  The change of length of service was not due to our campaign.  However, whatever the reason that they now serve longer, it seems ridiculous to force highly skilled soldiers out of the Army. Gurkhas are incredibly loyal and more of them tend to serve their whole term than other parts of the Army.  What reward does our country give them for that loyalty and commitment? – it looks like they’re going to be thrown on the scrap heap!’

Peter Carroll is asking supporters to ask their friends, family and colleagues who care about the Gurkhas to sign the petition at www.savethegurkhas.co.uk. Peter added, ‘If the cuts are as deep as rumoured, it could push the Brigade of Gurkhas past the point of being sustainable at all’.

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