Regular readers will know that TheEye has been involved with several of the Gurkha and Nepalese support groups in his Parish. So it was a pleasure to read reports about a long battle fought and won.

Nepal’s Gurkhas gave British actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley a hero’s welcome when she landed at Kathmandu airport on her first-ever visit to the Himalayan nation today.

Hundreds of soldiers and their families greeted the 63-year-old star of TV show Absolutely Fabulous, who spearheaded a campaign for the British army veterans to be allowed to settle in the country they fought for.

The actress’s impassioned lobbying earned her the adoration of the Gurkhas, who have described her visit as a “homecoming”. “I am delighted to be here,” Lumley said as she was engulfed by cheering supporters who presented her with marigold garlands and a traditional shawl.

“Ayo Gurkhali!” she shouted, echoing the soldiers’ war cry that means “The Gurkhas are coming”.

As we all know, McDoom was humiliated in May when he was forced in the face of Lumley’s campaign to concede that all Gurkha veterans who had served at least four years in the army could now apply for residency. Previously, only those who retired after 1997 had been eligible to apply.

The Indian-born actress, whose best-known role was as the cocaine-snorting fashionista Patsy in the hit comedy Absolutely Fabulous, had become a rallying voice for the men she called the “bravest of the brave”.

During her six-day trip to Nepal, Lumley will meet the country’s President and Prime Minister as well as visit three towns with large Gurkha communities.

Now the one-eyed snot-gobbler and that bloke with the Hitler moustache have to follow up and honour the national covenant by providing decent equipment for their brothers who are currently fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq…