The Gurkhas are beloved by the vast, vast majority of the British public, across the political and racial spectrum.
Any attack on them, such as the appalling treatment of Gurkha veterans by the last govt, gets national anger and opprobrium. The Gurkhas are seen as national treasures. Rightly so.
And the vast majority of Britain supports citizenship for Ghurkas and always has done. They are probably the one non-white group whose immigration dosent even register (because of their status and their low numbers).
The only people who oppose them are racists like the BNP. Frankly you must know some very odd and racist British people.
You assertion that the British people oppose Gurkha citizenship is an utter lie, one in fact that is causing me to barely keep this reply polite and civil.
I have read your writings on FR about Britain and frankly I find some of them dont add up. Either you cherry pick or you dont ‘get’ Britain as well as perhaps you think you do.
You had better start reading my posts a little bit more closely before you start calling me a liar, buster. If you read what I wrote correctly you would see that I was quoting one or two friends who were not happy about Gurkha citizenship. I never said anything about the entire British public. So please keep polite and civil. I would hate to have you fall into a snit like Terry-Thomas in “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
My friends are all theatre professionals; some of them you may know by name. None of whom belong to the BNP or the EDL. I suppose they have just seen too many changes in their lifetime and they are hurt and bewildered and include Gurkhas in their general anger.
And, again, if you don’t think America engages in self-criticism over our recent and present past, you are living on another planet. But we do not and never have had an Empire. Great Britain did.
And if you’d like to read an orgy of self-pity towards England while expressing a blistering hatred towards America, I recommend Caryll Churchill’s short play “Drunk Enough to say I Love You.” I was forced to sit through this nasty bit of xenophobia several years ago at The Royal Court.
I knew some Gurkhas in Seoul, Korea when I was stationed in the ROK. Even scarier than the ROKs and that’s saying something. Any rioter would be a fool to put a foot wrong with one Gurkha, much less a platoon.