CONGRATULATIONS to Joanna Lumley.

She has battled on behalf of the Gurkhas with a dignity and good grace that professional politicians would do well to replicate.

Rather than crowing in the face of the Government’s U-turn, Ms Lumley yesterday chose to praise the Prime Minister, calling him a “brave man who has made a brave decision on behalf of the bravest of the brave”.

In a way, she is right. U-turns are always humiliating for governments, but at least Gordon Brown can console himself by saying he listened to Parliament and the public.

In truth, though, he made the only decision available to him.

One of the reasons the public is so angry about MPs’ expenses is that claiming for things such as duck islands offends the basic concept of natural justice.

It ain’t fair and it ain’t right.

Similarly, the Gurkhas. It was neither fair nor right that soldiers who were prepared to die for this country weren’t able to live here.

Ms Lumley used the power of her celebrity to gain attention for this cause.

She acted, quite brilliantly, as an innocent although there was a real knowingness in the way she stalked the Immigration Minister Phil Woolas and cornered him in front of the TV cameras.

There are a couple of niggles in all this.

Firstly, how many equally righteous causes are there that go unheard because they aren’t lucky enough to have celebrity endorsement and, secondly, has the Government thought this through? One of its reasons for denying the Gurkhas residential rights was that there are tens of thousands of Commonwealth troops – from Pakistan, India, Kenya, Singapore and Malaysia – in the British Army. Do they get to stay, too?

Those, though, are questions for another day. Today we should celebrate that a wrong has been righted. “Ayo Gorkhali”

– the Gurkhas are coming, and we hope they are made welcome.