Free Republic

We received a petition asking: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Keep trying to honour the 2004 pledge to give retired Gurkhas the right to become citizens of the UK on retirement and to pay retired Gurkhas a fair pension." Details of petition: "The Government promised citizenship rights to retired Gurkhas following a major campaign in 2004, but hundreds of retired Gurkhas who should have the right to citizenship are having their applications unfairly held up by the Home Office. The Gurkhas are also fighting the Government decision to only allow Gurkhas who retired after 1st July 1997...

"So often we try to put pirates and terrorists in two different categories. We do this because the primary objectives of both are different. Pirates are primarily seagoing bandits with a goal of theft of valuables. Terrorists are essentially killers who want to inflict as many human casualties – in as dramatic a fashion as possible – in order to influence mass audiences. But both pirates and terrorists are in many ways the same, and they certainly have similar sub-objectives, which goes to the heart of your question. "