I don't know whereabouts in Britain Mr Lurie resides, but I am thankful that I have not met any one I know to share his views. My parents brought me up to be proud of our long inheritance of Britishness, but I also grew up with a sense of the honourable behaviour that that demands.

It is not honourable to use people's lives and then discard them. That goes for our own military, too, but to exclude the Gurkhas in the way that has been done is mean. Meanness may be a part of our national character at certain times and in certain places, but it is not an estimable one, or one to be encouraged.

Penny