Lord Bonkers on the Gurkhas

Lord Bonkers wrote in 2004:

For many, I know, the highlight of the Bournemouth Conference was the arrival of the Gurkhas and their bagpipes. How proud I was, as Colonel-in-Chief of the Queen’s Own Rutland Highlanders, to march at their head!

Besides, it is high time these doughty fighters were restored to their place at the centre of British politics. I can recall the days when I could not make a speech without some fellow from the back of the hall shouting “What about the Gurkhas?”

Mind you, I never went quite as far as the more advanced Young Liberals of the 1960s, who wished to bring about Gurkhas’ control of industry.