No shame, no honesty – and absolutely no bloody clue


If you’re not British, you may not know about the Gurkhas.

But for nearly two centuries they have fought and died for Britain. No braver soldiers exist.

Their reward from Britain has been – nothing, except a statue in Whitehall. They have had no rights to domicile here. Many live in dire poverty. Some who are here get deported.

Now, again, if not British, you may not know Joanna Lumley. Here she is seen with Tul Bahadur Pun, a Gurkha who won the VC fighting for us. As the picture suggests, besides being a great comic actress she is remarkable in many ways. She has been fighting for the rights of Gurkha soldiers who fought for us. Every decent person in this country backs her.

Now, just guess who tried hard to stop her? Do the words “Great Bloated Loony Toad” ring any bells?

Ten days ago even Members of Parliament, the majority normally blind to much beyond the trough they have their snouts, in defeated this government on this issue.

Years ago, this would have led to the government resigning. But not now.

And no wonder, for yet another series of disclosures reveals just how just about all of them, from the Toad downwards have been stealing money. He – as cheap as you’d expect – did a little £6,577 scam by paying his brother for “cleaning services” and claiming twice for a plumbing bill.

It’s hard to know which is worse – their shiftiness or their dire incompetence. For last Thursday, having finally given in and been forced to the right thing by the Gurkhas, Brown said he would take “personal charge” of things. So two Gurkhas were denied the right to stay.

On two other matters of competence, first, the Bank of England has just printed another £50 billion of bank notes. This is what they used to call “debauching the currency.”

Second, Barclays Bank has just improved its profits by 15%. This was done by cutting costs.

Memo to Rotting Haggis: you don’t improve your finances by pissing away money. Even the doziest of bankers know you do it by spending less.

All you have to do is look around and eliminate every public service job that cannot be shown to add value. We managed without them before you and the Bliar arrived. We can manage again.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

3 Comments

  1. Agree, Drayton

    The splendid Joanna Lumley and her Gurkhas, if I can put it like that, might like to know that if you serve with the French Foreign Legion you become an honorary citizen of France after five years service, whatever your nationality on enlisting.

    A nice touch entirely uncharacteristic of the stoney-hearted functionaries who have run the Ministry of Defence and its previous incarnations over the decades.

    Cheers
    Greg

  2. The gurkhas have always been known to be fearless in battle, charging in where even such famed regiments as the ‘Paras’ were not going in.

    These ‘little’ guys feared no army.

    They fought and died for this country so many times, and yet, they’re not even allowed to be officers in their own regiment.

    Who gets to order them around?

    A pure British toff… one who probably never even bothered going into battle with them.

    This country owes a lot to the gurkhas.

    As far as Barclays bank goes, they’re the ones who have beend closing down accounts held by Islamic charities, giving no reason why.

    Check out this post to learn more: http://adamsolomon.org/2008/12/26/an-open-letter-to-all-banks-who-close-down-charity-accounts-just-because-we-are-muslim/

    When I sent an email asking them why, all they bothered to do was point me the the banking ombdusman.

  3. is completely off base, I would grately appreciate anyone’s insight on things I have failed to comprehend. My responses are in no way meant to offend. They are only meant to share my understanding of reality. Everyone has their own interpretation.I think much can be accomplished through dialogue. T he original issue has been expanded quite a bit in this discussion, but I appreciate the back and forth this issue has generated.One last off-topic thought: If shere punjab were to win its freedom back from India, then what?From what I can see, this region would be land-locked. How would goods get in and out of shere punjab?Would that really be better for the people to be isolated from the rest of the world, unable to trade? Would this new border-enforced isolation not give India the leverage to negotiate economic issues to India’s advantage?Would the average person in shere punjab really be better off?For example, how would oil get into shere punjab? Or new cars, trucks, appliances, tv’s, etc. And how would the goods produced in shere punjab be exported to the rest of the world? Also, how would farm equipment and tractors get into shere punjab?Flying all this stuff in and out of shere punjab would be excessively expensive. And that would still not solve the most important issue in regards to the local economy, which would be the lack of access to oil.

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