Joanna Lumley Takes Over British Government

[Sheilbh]

If only

Joanna Lumley confronts Phil Woolas over Gurkhas

The government's policy towards the Gurkhas descended into a potentially hugely expensive shambles yesterday after the actor Joanna Lumley extracted fresh concessions in an extraordinary live television confrontation with the home office minister Phil Woolas.

The actor, who has been a powerful champion for the Gurkhas as they have fought through the courts and parliament, exploited Home Office heavy-handedness to demand assurances from a sheepish Woolas after five former Gurkhas received letters from the home office apparently telling them they did not qualify to settle in Britain.

The letters arrived only a day after Gordon Brown at prime minister's questions and in a private meeting with Lumley had promised their cases would be reviewed, and insisted he was taking personal charge of the issue.

Brown had not known about the letters and was only informed of their existence by Lumley who tartly spoke of "a gap in communications inside government", and her sense of personal shock.

Lumley disclosed she had been up at midnight sending a three-page personal letter to Brown, only to be told of the letters of rejection yesterday morning.

An angry Home Office hit back, privately accusing Lumley of being exploited by those campaigning on behalf of the Gurkhas, and insisting the letters to the five Gurkhas had clearly said their applications had only been rejected under previous criteria, but would be reviewed under new criteria that would be drawn up by the end of the month. Ministers had agreed to establish new criteria after an unprecedented Commons defeat last week.

Lumley sprung into action, calling a Westminster press conference yesterday afternoon after the five Gurkhas received apparent letters of rejection from the Borders and Immigration Agency.

Alerted to Lumley's decision to hold a press conference, Woolas raced to the TV studios across the road from parliament to send out a message of reassurance about the real meaning of the letters, only for Lumley to follow him and then agree to hold an impromptu meeting accompanied by cameras in the offices of the BBC, the first time the two protagonists had met.

Lumley told Woolas she was shocked at the letters and wanted assurances the Gurkhas, including some Falklands veterans, would not go through "this cartwheel of emotions".

The pair then agreed to hold a joint press conference at which a visibly squirming Woolas insisted the government was obliged by the terms of a court judgement to send the letters.

Home Office sources insisted the Gurkha's lawyers would have understood the letters' true meaning, adding "someone is playing childish games ... a slick political operation is running this".

But at the joint press conference the cornered minister was forced to nod in agreement as Lumley dictated that the Gurkha lawyers would help in drawing up the new guidelines, that the review would be completed by June, and the cases of the 1,500 outstanding Gurkha applicants would all be looked at "most sympathetically".

Lumley insisted: "There is so little to be reviewed, so little to be looked at, except all these men, all these applicants should be received with open arms."

Woolas countered: "This letter is not a letter of rejection. It is a letter explaining the legal process." He added it would be bad politics and irresponsible simply to wave them in.

The home office stressed that of the 1,500 outstanding cases, 100 had been waved through this week. Woolas added he thought the five cases in contention yesterday were also likely to be agreed.

Ministers are worried that they may set a precedent that would allow any overseas soldier who had fought for Britain entry along with their family.

Ministers say they can only construct the new criteria after they have completed the review of the 1,500 cases.

Lumley said: "I know we have been accused of being emotional but that is because I am an actress and a woman, and we are always being accused of being emotional of which I am rather proud. I think that unless you can take judgments of right and wrong like an automaton, you must have emotions because that is our only way of moral guidance."

Although Lumley left the confrontation saying she was once more reassured, the Gurkha lawyers took a harder line insisting it was ridiculous to suggest the floodgates would be opened.

For the government, an issue which has seen them embarrassed for most of a week shows no sign of going away. Tory leader David Cameron said the left hand of government did not know what the right hand was doing.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "At worst this was a betrayal of the Gurkhas and at best a monumental shambles in government where one part didn't know what the other part was doing."

Huhne added: "It is amazing that the day after the prime minister says he is taking charge ... decorated war heroes from the Falklands war have received letters saying they won't be allowed to stay."

She deserves, at least, a Damehood for this and everything else she's ever done
A Guardian dispatch on the Gurkha veterans:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/sep/12/gurkha.veterans.battle.britain

And Joanna Lumley's glorious public coup d'etat:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8038446.stm

[Jacob]

Heh.

Though... how fast is the postal service in Britain?  Is it possible the letters were mailed before Brown "took charge"?  I mean, they only arrived the next day.

[Sheilbh]

Though... how fast is the postal service in Britain?  Is it possible the letters were mailed before Brown "took charge"?  I mean, they only arrived the next day.

Oh that's likely.  What's surprising is that they were probably mailed a day or two before he 'took charge' (which with Brown means something like 'grabbed the wheel and drove into a wall') and he had no idea, despite having taken charge

[jimmy olsen]

Go Gurkhas!

[MadImmortalMan]

The Home Office sure if full of fail recently.

[Sheilbh]

The Home Office sure if full of fail recently.

The Home Office is the poisoned chalice of British politics generally.  As Dr. John Reid put it it's not 'fit for purpose'.  Before he was booted because lots of illegal immigrants were working as cleaners in the Home Office

[MadImmortalMan]

The Home Office sure if full of fail recently.

The Home Office is the poisoned chalice of British politics generally.  As Dr. John Reid put it it's not 'fit for purpose'.  Before he was booted because lots of illegal immigrants were working as cleaners in the Home Office

Still, that's not as bad as half the Foreign Office working for the Soviets.