Premiership of Gordon Brown into further talks over the issue. Finally, after a Commons Home Affairs Committee meeting between campaigners, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office on 19 May, Brown announced to the House of Commons on 20 May that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would make a statement on the issue the following day. Smith subsequently announced that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. In the days following the release and high-profile return to Libya of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in August 2009, speculation
Dumfries, Lochmaben and Lockerbie Railway tremendous amount of traffic to be handled at Dumfries during World War II with locomotive power augmented accordingly. "For the line to Lockerbie they had sent down a L&NW push-and-pull outfit, with a Webb 2-4-2 tank. Besides its Lockerbie activities, the push-and-pull did at least one turn on the main line. I noted No. 6639 on it several times." The outer wall of the company's trainshed still stands at Lockerbie railway station. The goods terminus was known as Dumfries St Mary's and is now St Mary's Industrial Estate. The line from Dumfries to Locharbriggs is now a cycle path, and