The magnificent figure storming through the BBC's Westminster offices to defend the Gurkhas was as fearless as any picture book warrior. All the Queen of the Gurkhas was missing was a mighty steed.

Or perhaps that should be her Steed. For if Joanna Lumley had been ten years younger, I suspect she would have put that New Avengers training to good use and 'done a Purdey' on the Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, karate-kicking him into the Thames as he attempted to wriggle out of a commitment to give the Gurkhas the deal they deserve.

Certainly, La Lumley scored a direct hit on what remains of the Prime Minister's credibility when she shamed him into a face-to-face meeting after he failed to reply to her three letters.
The result? On Wednesday the PM offered private guarantees that these brave soldiers would be able to stay in the UK. 'I trust him, I rely upon him and I know he has now taken the matter into his own hands,' Lumley said - and the nation's heart sank.

Sure enough, no sooner had the words left her lips than Brown's office was denying any new deal had been put in place.

So Lumley kept going. 'I feel absolutely confident Gordon Brown is going to do the right thing for the Gurkhas,' she said. Well, she always did have a wonderful sense of comic timing.

The whole sorry farce came to a head the next day, when five Gurkhas received letters telling them they had lost their bid for British residency after all.

Cue Lumley's indignant ambush of Woolas, forcing him in front of the TV cameras, where he had no option but to pledge an urgent review of the men's cases while continuing to insist that he can't just 'let the nice people in, and the nasty people not'.
Pardon me, Minister, but isn't that precisely what we pay you for?

Lumley has shown what happens when Labour comes face to face with common sense and public sentiment. Decency took on dishonour and emerged triumphant.

It has been 30 years since Margaret Thatcher defeated Old Labour and stood on the steps of No 10. Three decades later, it took another fearsome female to destroy New Labour's last shred of honesty and credibility.

Surely in his flight from power Gordon Brown can leave one decent legacy - that those who fought for Britain receive not 'rewards and crowns' as Elizabeth I once promised her followers, just the right to live in the country they once risked their lives to defend.

Philippa wrote:I suspect she would have put that New Avengers training to good use and 'done a Purdey' on the Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, karate-kicking him into the Thames as he attempted to wriggle out of a commitment to give the Gurkhas the deal they deserve.