How did anyone in the government think that it was a good idea to try and pull a hard line on this? I have yet to find one person, of any political persuasion, who thinks that stopping the Gurkhas coming here is in any way fair. It seems pretty obvious to me that if you have served in the British armed forces then you should have the right to permanent residency in the UK. The government says it would cost £1.4 billion - fine, let's just put up taxes to raise the money. Could anybody seriously object?
And well done to all Labour MPs who voted against the government on this - a full list here.
This makes an already unpopular government look ridiculous. And it's a huge PR coup for Dave Cameron and Nick Clegg.
Government ministers need to try doing something popular for a change.
