Off the wall

Councillor Lawrey’s idea that a cantilevered pathway be erected on a sea wall that he maintains ‘‘has to be replaced,’’ doesn’t make sense.

Odder still, given Green Party concerns about sea-level rise, is that such a cantilever couldn’t be expected to last.

He then suggests, ‘‘we can build a new sea wall.’’

Typical Green Party thinking. The cost of their ‘‘ideas’’ doesn’t matter, even when they wouldn’t work. Lawrey’s "idea’’ would cost so much, the government would soon recognise the Southern Link option to be far more economic.

Of course, Lawrey ignores the approaching 26 per cent of Nelson’s population who are elderly, (NCC statistics) and the 25 per cent who’re disabled, (MSD Disability Review Statistics).

Their only independence and freedom comes from their ability to travel when and where they like. They don’t or can’t ride bicycles, or take Lawrey’s recommendation of public transport, so they’ll still drive to the city.

Nelson’s inter-region transportation network is vital to the economy of the whole region. That Lawrey is a councillor on a council that’s letting the city centre die and watching its commercial heart shift to Richmond is bad enough.

He should stop trying to stifle other people’s far more realistic opinions. part in our daily lives, from rubbish collection and roads to land use policy.

At the last council elections, many were confused over the two different voting systems used.

Despite knowing how confusing it was for voters, TDC councillors recently voted 8 to 6 to keep the FPP system.

Many mistakenly used the same voting system for both the DHB and TDC ballot as they came in the same envelope, hence we had many invalid votes.

All DHBs are required by law to use the STV system because it is considered to be more fair and therefore superior.

We can decide our voting system in Tasman if we present TDC with a petition asking for a poll of the voters to decide which system we prefer.

We need just 5 per cent[1,827] of registered Tasman electors to sign the petition for the poll to go ahead. We have a limited amount of time to do this as prescribed by our rights in the Local Electoral Act.

So please support this petition before February 14. Forms are available from Liz Thomas at lizthomaspost@gmail.com. shorts revealing more buttock than is strictly necessary.

How can you not envy people who don’t care? It’s endearing.

The body is an eloquent thing, a source of misery at times to those of us who don’t measure up as ballerinas.

I say this because of the exceptionally large breasts of Stormy Daniels, the ‘‘adult’’ movie star who says she had a fling with Trump while his current wife recovered from the birth of their son.

She now says she was paid $130,000 in hush money.

Of the several levels of vulgarity involved here – marital infidelity at such a time among them – it’s the breasts that puzzle me.

Negotiating contact with such a barrier between you would take courage, assuming that they are mostly artificial, and therefore rather solid, and that’s a point in Trump’s favour.

Nothing deters him, other than other health costs, but it would be good to know the follow-up success rate of the operations five and 10 years down the track.

Meanwhile our Super Rugby players are reportedly on the brink of developing eating disorders for the same reason as women, trying to control their body image and meet a glamorous ideal, as if sporting talent isn’t enough.

A report this week says they can succumb to binge eating in the midst of strict diets, and consider vomiting afterwards.

That sounds like the horrible seesaw of bulimia, normally associated with anxious women.

As with young women, it’s the young players who are said to be most vulnerable to body image anxiety, and I’m not surprised.

The cult of the body is designed to undermine confidence and make life miserable, as if only the physically perfect, preferably with luminescent, bleached teeth, are proper people, and everyone else should be quietly culled.