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Shame
A Victoria Cross winning World War Two veteran has been refused the right to live in the UK because he "has no strong ties" to Britain. This is despite the fact that former Gurkha Tul Bahadur Pun (84) risked his live many times over, once storming Japanese machine gun positions single-handed, in the name of Britain in the War.
Iain Dale picks up on the story in The Daily Mail:
Tul Bahadur Pun's extraordinary act of valour while fighting the Japanese during World War Two even won him royal admirers. He was invited to the Queen's Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother. Yet despite his illustrious service record, when the ailing 84-year-old former Gurkha soldier applied for permission to live in Britain he was refused by government officials.
Amazingly, British officials in Nepal told the wizened old warrior who put his life on the line for King and country: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK." Explaining his reasons for the application, he said: "I take a substantial amount of medication daily, without which I would die. There is not always a constant supply. When it runs out I feel vulnerable.
"There are no doctors or nurses, no medical outposts. I wish to settle in the UK to have better access to medication, care and support from doctors and nurses." The old soldier has to travel from his remote home to the Gurkha camp at Pokhara once a month to collect his pension - which pays for his medication. It involves a day's walk - and as he is unable to walk that far, he has to be carried in a basket by several men. Mr Pun's act of heroism in Burma which earned him the VC has gone down in military history. On 23 June 1944 almost all his comrades were wiped out by heavy enemy fire.
He seized a Bren Gun and, firing from the hip while running through ankle deep mud, he ignored Japanese fire to singlehandedly storm enemy machine gun positions.
His official citation read: "His outstanding courage and superb gallantry in the face of odds which meant almost certain death were most inspiring to all ranks and beyond praise."
Britain is perfectly open to failed asylum seekers who choose to remain in the country; even if they hijack passenger jets to get here. Hundreds of thousands of workers from central and eastern Europe and perhaps as many from further afield have stopped in Britain - temporarily or otherwise - to make a buck, then perhaps return home. Some don't even have to pay tax while they're here. Unlike the French, the British government has been suspiciously slow to kick out foreign preachers who stir ethnic and religious hatred in the country.
But an old bloke who offered his life for Britain sixty years ago?
The inscription to the 1997 monument to the Gurkha Soldier in London reads: ":Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you."
Is this how Britain treats its faithful friends?
"What kind of country have we become?" asks Iain.
