A Freedom of Information request that I sent via the fantastic Whatdotheyknow.com on 29th April has finally been answered a mere two months and one internal review late.
I asked them to "Please supply details of the calculation used to determine the £1.4
billion cost of settlement rights for Gurkhas."
Their eventual reply (obviously available on WDTK) was that the figure assumes (among other things) that:
- All 36,000 who retired between 1948 and 1997 would choose to settle if they were able to do so
- None of the dependants (including spouse, children under 18, unmarried dependant children 18-30, elderly parents living with the main applicant - and assuming half of children 18-30 are married) work
- All settling families are on Child Tax Credits maximum award.
While I am obviously not a Gurka expert I would not have thought that those assumptions were particularly likely to apply to any group. No wonder that nice Mr Woolas so stenuously avoided answering any questions on the figures...
You are correct, the Government's £1.4 billion for Gurkha Settlement figure is ridiculously inflated to justify their breach of the Tripartite Agreement of 1947, which has never been implemented properly, specifically: 'In all matters of promotion, welfare and other facilities the Gurkha troops should be treated on the same footing as the other units in the parent army so that the stigma of "mercenary troops" may for all times be wiped out'.
ReplyDeleteThe ridiculous figure quoted is just that, totally ridiculous. You are absolutely right, such convoluted assumption does, and should, not apply to any particular group, let alone us, the Gurkhas! It is this mean Government's yet another answer to deny us Gurkhas fair and equal treatment as agreed in the Tripartite agreement in 1947!
Thank you for your comment, I'm very pleased that you have found my blog.
ReplyDeleteJust out of interest, how many Gurkhas do you expect to move over here? My guess would be that not many who retired in or around 1948 will want to uproot their families and go through the unpleasant process of emigrating. Of coure, I am no expert and base this assumption largely on my limited experience of emigration and things said by the magnificent Joanna Lumley.
Hi Matt, you are most welcome. I would say that you are correct that not many of my old veteran brothers would want to uproot themselves and their families to go through the unpleasant process and uncertainty of emigrating to the UK.
ReplyDeleteI think that the large figures put about by the MOD and the Governent is just scare mongering tactics and does not accurately reflect reality.
Our main aim of the Justice for Gurkhas campaign was for euality of pension and fair treatment in accordance with the Tripartite Agreement. However, the Settlement in UK issue somehow seems to have snowballed into an avalanche of support from the general British public, unfairly causing misunderstanding and fear in some quarters.
I really appreciate your blog that can help allay these misunderstandings and fears and inform everyone that if the Government relents and changes its discriminatory policy and grants all Gurkhas pension equal to their British counterparts, then there is never going to be a mass exsodus of Gurkhas from Nepal to UK in search of a better life, they will be able to live a very comfortable life in Nepal.