Joanna Lumley

Former New Avenger Joanna Lumley has been campaigning for the rights of former Gurkha soldiers to settle in the UK. Some of the men, highly decorated war heroes suffering from illnesses linked to their service, have been denied entry on the grounds that they do not have enough of a link to the UK. Fighting and bleeding for the nation is apparently not sufficient for Labour.

Meanwhile, the government has no problems allowing foreigners, with no link whatsoever to Britain, and who have also committed crimes to stay here. One example are the Afghans who high-jacked an airplane en route to London and then demanded asylum here. They can stay- but old and sick war heroes cannot.

Fighting the injustice of this system, Joanna Lovely Lumley has shown herself to be a determined, loyal and patriotic fighter. Most recently, she cornered the Immigration Minister (who happened to be in the same building as her) and not only demanded a meeting with him but also dragged him in front of the cameras where she basically humiliated him. It was an astonishing sight to behold on the news, with the press seemingly delighted by the theatre of it all.

Mr Woolas became embroiled in an extraordinary televised political pantomime with Miss Lumley yesterday after some veterans received letters rejecting their claims to live in the UK. In a bravura performance, the actress seized the initiative in her battle for soldiers' rights and reduced Phil Woolas to an abject and humiliated figure. Adopting the air of an angry schoolmistress, she sought him out at Westminster and frogmarched him to a live press conference for a very public dressing down. In the process, she effectively rewrote Government policy.

Bravo!

This picture says it all really-













Although, I have to say that this one (taken after Parliament voted against the government's preposterous rules) is also rather good-