Joanna Lumley, genuine supporter of the Gurkha's

… but should retrospective changes apply in this case?

Not that I’m a fan of Jacqui Smith, Phil Woolas or Gordon Brown, I’ll admit that now. Smith’s expenses speak volumes about this government’s reality of ordinary British life, the same applies to her propensity to achieve a state-run database to spy on British citizen’s – synonymous with 1984, around the year she thinks we all must have all been born – the lengths a ‘Blair Babe’ will go to secure their name in history.

Note to Jacqui: ‘You’re no ‘Blair Babe ‘- more ‘Blair witch’.

But to be fair David Cameron or Nick Clegg haven’t impressed me much either. This whole ugly debacle about the Gurkha’s raises more unsightly eyebrow hair than Alistair Darling and Susan Boyle put together.

There has been little coverage in recent weeks and months of another battle this Labour government have fought and lost, not in the House of Commons, but in the High Court and the British legal system, and where were Cameron and Clegg then?

The thing that stinks so much about this, is the politics going on behind the scenes, the political scams the tabloids rarely cover, because let’s face it, Jordan with her tits out beside the headline ‘Highly skilled migrants win legal battle’, doesn’t sell as many papers.

Do you think Cameron or Clegg would have cared as much had it not been for a former model that locked a generation in The New Avengers, cocked another in Absolutely Fabulous and barrelled the both in Sensitive Skin? Note to Joanna: They’re jumping on the bandwagon.

Three weeks ago the Home Office and Labour government were in the dock at the High Court for unfair immigration changes they enforced on highly skilled migrants, people like doctors and nurses, who successfully applied for the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) before April 2006.

When these migrants first arrived in the UK they were told they would only have to live, work and pay higher taxes than everyone else for four years before they were eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain. At no stage were they entitled to government bailouts such as brew, dole, or whatever you want to call it. They were here to work and contribute to the UK economy, the conditions were clear.

Then the Labour government decided to move the goal posts.

What followed was a disgusting miscarriage of justice. Thousands of highly skilled workers imported to work in the UK as GP’s and doctors in an A&E units up and down the country, saving the lives of UK citizens and working as scientists or engineers to improve the lives of the rest were told to wait a further year and if they didn’t like it, go back to where you came from. They had little choice to accept the decision and fight it in the courts.

This resulted in three to four further years of legal limbo and further expenses in legal and living fees, not to mention the mental damage involved.

Not very comforting when you know Gordon Brown’s announcement for transparity in central politics would be top of his agenda would turn out to be another Labour spin story and Jacqui Smith would be claiming for relatives ‘second’ homes and pay-per-view blue movies.

Thankfully the British justice system seen through these retrospective changes and ordered the Home Secretary to honour the original conditions of the UK immigration contract for HSMP workers.

Which brings me back to David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

When the Gurkhas signed up to the job were they told they could come and live in the UK? Were they mercenaries? After Indian independence when they were given the choice of stay in India or come back to the UK, why did most of them choose to stay in India? If they were told you can come to the UK later, then fine, let them all move to the UK, if not, then why are Cameron and Clegg jumping on this bandwagon?

Where were they when changes to the UK Ancestry visa meant extending the time limit by one year on the basis of needing more attachment to the UK? The category exists in the first place because of ancestral links, don’t these people have more of a claim on the UK than the gurkhas? Why did the Labour government and UK immigration ignore the close ties with these people that already existed due to ancestry?

The Gurkhas, a gallant force who supported Great Britain through two World Wars, paying for their lives in countries, currency and freedom through continuing battles surely is equal to the plight of those on UK Ancestry and HSMP visas.

Any high profile celebrities out there willing to take on this government for the plight of these equally worthy people?