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Not another Gurkha Hunger Strike

Thing is how many of us fully read terms and conditions, it's no different to buying a new telly, sign here here and here and wahey got new telly but did not realise it was 800% APR and you had donated all your organs and corneas to someone. I do agree with the level playing field bit though, however I stand by the fact that everybody has the right to redress and have their case heard if they think they have been treated unfairly or hoodwinked. Think PPI claims, think bank charges etc. It only takes one case to be successful then open the gates. The main issue here is as a nation we do not like to complain or cause a fuss. If we were french the country would down tools !

I certain read TACOs when it might cost me money, if I don't then I can hardly complain about it later.

Anyone has the right to moan, but equally anyone can laugh at that individual for being a greedy **** who is lying to gain public support.
 
Thing is how many of us fully read terms and conditions, it's no different to buying a new telly, sign here here and here and wahey got new telly but did not realise it was 800% APR and you had donated all your organs and corneas to someone. I do agree with the level playing field bit though, however I stand by the fact that everybody has the right to redress and have their case heard if they think they have been treated unfairly or hoodwinked. Think PPI claims, think bank charges etc. It only takes one case to be successful then open the gates. The main issue here is as a nation we do not like to complain or cause a fuss. If we were french the country would down tools !
They had their redress twice...at the European Court of Human Rights. The first time claiming discriminatory TACOS...the second time they went with 'racism' ! Both times,the verdict was no case to answer.

They need to realise...nobody gets retrospective pension increases. They also need to take responsibility for the situation they find themselves in !

Repeating the same insulting trope "Bravest of the Brave", just pisses me and, lots of my contemporaries off, they are soldiers...no better or worse than any others and, believing your myths isn't the best idea !
 
Apparently, in a move that may be connected to Plan B, it seems that Lumley may have become involved.

I say apparently because I'm not convinced yet that it isn't news that has been manufactured by the campaigners - perhaps over time, its veracity may be confirmed.
Lumley appears to be playing the poverty card;

Joanna Lumley: "Government cannot condemn Gurkha protesters to poverty"​

Another Gurkha agitprop group (BGWS) once attempted to push the Poverty-Among-Gurkhas line in Aldershot.

The Aldershot folk took a look at;

The Betting Shops filled to overflowing,
The Nepalese shops dealing in gold jewellery;
The travel agencies specialising in long holidays and resettlement back to Nepal.
The businesses remitting cash back to Nepal.
The estate agents catering to Gurkha business,

- and they just laughed.


Lumley Link Joanna Pleads Poverty
 
Apparently, in a move that may be connected to Plan B, it seems that Lumley may have become involved.

I say apparently because I'm not convinced yet that it isn't news that has been manufactured by the campaigners - perhaps over time, its veracity may be confirmed.
Lumley appears to be playing the poverty card;

Joanna Lumley: "Government cannot condemn Gurkha protesters to poverty"​

Another Gurkha agitprop group (BGWS) once attempted to push the Poverty-Among-Gurkhas line in Aldershot.

The Aldershot folk took a look at;

The Betting Shops filled to overflowing,
The Nepalese shops dealing in gold jewellery;
The travel agencies specialising in long holidays and resettlement back to Nepal.
The businesses remitting cash back to Nepal.
The estate agents catering to Gurkha business,

- and they just laughed.


Lumley Link Joanna Pleads Poverty
Putting another nail in the coffin....next defence cu(n)ts no more mercenaries
 
Apparently, in a move that may be connected to Plan B, it seems that Lumley may have become involved.

I say apparently because I'm not convinced yet that it isn't news that has been manufactured by the campaigners - perhaps over time, its veracity may be confirmed.
Lumley appears to be playing the poverty card;

Joanna Lumley: "Government cannot condemn Gurkha protesters to poverty"​

Another Gurkha agitprop group (BGWS) once attempted to push the Poverty-Among-Gurkhas line in Aldershot.

The Aldershot folk took a look at;

The Betting Shops filled to overflowing,
The Nepalese shops dealing in gold jewellery;
The travel agencies specialising in long holidays and resettlement back to Nepal.
The businesses remitting cash back to Nepal.
The estate agents catering to Gurkha business,

- and they just laughed.


Lumley Link Joanna Pleads Poverty
I bet Aldershot wishes it had the Paras back!
 
Might I suggest that also everybody has a right to complain, terms of service are no different to any contract with it's express and implied terms and is a mutual agreement and at any point you disagree a grievance can be formally made and has to be investigated. Although it may feel like it at times, you always had terms of redress but as it was always seen as un-manly people kept quiet as not to look like a whinging gayer.
They all knew the terms and conditions of service. It was the best publised job offer in Nepal known by word of mouth everywhere. It was a chance of going from rags to riches. 200 applicants for every position. They saw the Gurkha soldiers returning on Nepal leave acting like they had won the lottery. There were plenty of British Gurkha pensioners who were the most respected men in their village and were very comfortably off living on their pensions. It was a dream come true for a Nepalese father in the Gurkha recruiting areas to send a son off to the British Army where he just played sports all day and was well fed and paid as opposed to the back breaking work and poverty as a farmer in Nepal.
 
They all knew the terms and conditions of service. It was the best publised job offer in Nepal known by word of mouth everywhere. It was a chance of going from rags to riches. 200 applicants for every position. They saw the Gurkha soldiers returning on Nepal leave acting like they had won the lottery. There were plenty of British Gurkha pensioners who were the most respected men in their village and were very comfortably off living on their pensions. It was a dream come true for a Nepalese father in the Gurkha recruiting areas to send a son off to the British Army where he just played sports all day and was well fed and paid as opposed to the back breaking work and poverty as a farmer in Nepal.
And, as told to me by more than one Gurkha, joining the British Brigade of Gurkhas was first prize. Second prize, after some daylight was the Indian Army and bringing up the rear was the Nepal Army.
Admittedly I am harking back to 1981 - 83, but again they were well aware of being able to retire (pension ma jane) at the 15 year point if their rank didn't qualify them to stay longer. They would typically have their lives/careers mapped out: first long leave in Nepal - get married*. Second long leave: buy land and build house. On retirement - supervise sons and daughters on the farm, living quite well IN NEPAL.

* We had a young GTR driver allocated who returned from long leave still unmarried. He was subjected to a lot of leg-pulling and advised that next leave he should go to Darjeeling where even he could pull a bride.
 
We had a young GTR driver allocated who returned from long leave still unmarried. He was subjected to a lot of leg-pulling and advised that next leave he should go to Darjeeling where even he could pull a bride.
Our GTR driver in South Korea in 83-84 was a great bloke. He was due to go on Nepal leave in early 1985. He got a letter from his dad. It read "Dear Bombahadur, you will be pleased to hear you will be getting married when you come home on leave, here is a picture of your new wife."
 
Our GTR driver in South Korea in 83-84 was a great bloke. He was due to go on Nepal leave in early 1985. He got a letter from his dad. It read "Dear Bombahadur, you will be pleased to hear you will be getting married when you come home on leave, here is a picture of your new wife."
I can well believe that. Was his father ex-British Army by any chance?
 
They would typically have their lives/careers mapped out: first long leave in Nepal - get married
I did read elsewhere on ARRSE that there was a fraud investigation in HK that showed some newly-acquired on first long leave wives didn't actually exist.

Who'd have thought the Gurkhas would have been capable of pulling a stunt like that. eh?
 
Anecdotally (my father was involved in the last case), in 2005 a Gurkha Major's pension exceeded the salary of the Nepali PM and pensions & remittances from Gurkhas constituted the third largest part of Nepal's economy.

Separately, dual citizenship was illegal for any citizen of Nepal at least up until the king was deposed (2006). This was a Nepali government policy and nothing to do with us.

Anecdotally and less kindly, Gurkhas were seen as being very keen to get any additional money they could. This included a review of LOA and Small Station Allowance paid to British personnel in Kathmandu and Pokhara (to have it extended to Gurkhas; SSA would then have disappeared); fortunately this foundered.
 
I did read elsewhere on ARRSE that there was a fraud investigation in HK that showed some newly-acquired on first long leave wives didn't actually exist.

Who'd have thought the Gurkhas would have been capable of pulling a stunt like that. eh?
Thinking about it, it wouldn't have been too difficult to pull off as becoming 'accompanied' was something that happened to the lucky soldier some time after getting married. I can't remember how long the happy couple had to wait, but I'm sure it was some years. I suppose the recently 'married' soldier would just have to show a piece of paper and draw whatever allowances were appropriate for being separated and remit the money to his 'wife'.
 
Thinking about it, it wouldn't have been too difficult to pull off as becoming 'accompanied' was something that happened to the lucky soldier some time after getting married. I can't remember how long the happy couple had to wait, but I'm sure it was some years. I suppose the recently 'married' soldier would just have to show a piece of paper and draw whatever allowances were appropriate for being separated and remit the money to his 'wife'.
Yes, a Gurkha soldier would be lucky if he was accompanied for three years out of his 15. That's why there is an outbreak of retrospective jealousy of his BOR contemporaries now happening but that was the deal.
Yet Nepalese men are still parting from their families for many years while they going earning in places like the Middle East, Malaysia and Japan. Not an enviable life-style to us in the West but it's a trade-off if you want the overseas bucks.
As regards paperwork, in Nepal, as with some other countries, getting the genuine document with fake details or a forged document with fake details is largely a matter of consumer choice.
 
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