Soldiers in court and Dylan in London (E362)

Most people would think that former commonwealth soldiers serving in the British armed forces would be the first in line for British citizenship. But for eight Fijian veterans, this is just half of the story, as they fought and lost a battle in the British courts to waive thousands of pounds in visa fees. Many people felt these issues had been resolved after the very successful campaign run by British actress Joanna Lumley on behalf of the Gurkha soldiers; however, with visa fees running into tens of thousands of pounds, many do not have the resources to pay for the right to stay. So, we invited Dave McMullen, himself a former British serviceman, to tell us about the campaign on behalf of the rights of British commonwealth service personnel.

Bob Dylan, the Nobel Laureate, gave himself an early 80th birthday present this week by selling his entire song book for a rumoured $300 million, beating the $80 million record set by Stevie Nicks. He has been at the top for over 60 years, but little has been written about the importance of London in his early career. Back in 1962 and barely out of his teens, Dylan came to the British capital and immersed himself in the thriving folk scene of the time. Keith Miles has co-authored a book with Jackie Lee on this period and he joined Sputnik to tell us about the troubadour’s London tales.

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