Ayo gorkhali

return. Lumleys father had served in the Brigade of Gorkhas; his daughter thought it was a scandal that the men her father had served with were not entitled to spend their last years in the country they had sought to defend.

This seems unexceptionable,and yet successive British governments havent acted on it. Finally,yesterday,Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Lumley,thrashing out details,and then hosted a party for his new fellow-citizens. So,alls well that ends well,apparently,even if it ended late and conveniently.

For the cynical explanation is,as The New York Times headline put it,Britain Calls In Gorkhas in Battle to Change the Subject. That the House of Commons,buffeted by general contempt following revelations that its members had charged such essentials as duck houses and ornamental topiary to the long-suffering British taxpayer,should suddenly give in to a campaign that had all the right ingredients for populist anger a famous face,war heroes,a villainous faceless bureaucracy might not be a coincidence. But nevertheless,what matters is that an essential principle is recognised: people who were willing to lay down their lives for a country not even theirs,should have the right to call that country home.