Political comment has degenerated to juvenile

I HAVE read both Ken Mcelligott’s letter (3/7) and Barry Lowe’s (5/7) to the Bulletin.

I found Mcelligott’s letter dignified, addressing incivility by some Bulletin authors who regularly submit offensive antiLabor material.

I fully endorse Mcelligott’s statements, not because of the political party, but because the statements by such authors are deliberately derogatory, disrespectful and uncivil.

Some TTE authors mockingly address Premier Palaszczuk as Puddleduck and Jackie Trad as Tradjic. Presumably they think it’s funny (it’s only a joke!). Such name-calling is reminiscent of schoolchildren when one child taunts another, a form of bullying.

It is very easy to create such distorted names and use with venom. For instance, one may distort the LNP leader Debbie Frecklington to Debbie (or Deadly) Frankenstein, or onetime Townsville politician Crisafulli as Crisa-full-of-it (as indeed was done) or PM Morrison as PM Moribund.

Turning to Barry Lowe’s letter, people may remember that the previous LNP premier, Campbell Newman, got rid of 14,000 public service jobs.

Barry Lowe does not mention this, instead referring to an excessive increase of public service jobs.

The Palaszczuk Government has tried to compensate for Newman’s iniquitous job cutting.

Barry Lowe says we have a hospital system in crisis, especially in the southeast, but presumably less so here.

A recent pamphlet from Coralee O’rourke MP, with a message from the Premier, states $1 billion for Townsville Hospital and Health Service, and that since election, 145 extra nurses and 120 doctors have been delivered.

Recently the TTH acquired a sophisticated MR LINAC machine for cancer treatment with a major component funding from the State Government.

As to Barry Lowe’s “out-ofcontrol juvenile crime” – I agree with him, although I understand the statistics show a decrease.

R.L. AGACY,

Gulliver.