Peters principle

All 65-year-olds who apply for National Super do so as private citizens. Their private savings and their occupation don’t enter into it, unless their current salary leads to some questions for Inland Revenue to ask. In any event, every person has privacy rights.

Therefore, whoever breached Winston Peters’ privacy must be brought to book ( Editorial, November 18). I’d have thought this to be a police matter. But if a citizen wishes to pursue the breach, surely he or she must do so in a private capacity.

To retain his kudos as an MP and minister, and assure his reputation and that of the coalition Government, he would be well advised to cease court action as the Deputy Prime Minister and begin again as Winston Peters, citizen. He will have no fewer rights, in my view, and gain considerably more respect. He might even make new case law.

DL Calder (New Plymouth)

Now that Peters has demonstrated that he has no concept of good faith, that he was never going to do a deal with the National Party and that he was simply stringing Labour along to squeeze as much juice out of the lemon as possible, some interesting things are going to happen. I imagine the defence of those served with discovery papers will include shining as much light as possible on Peters.

His court action is not “a personal matter”, as Jacinda Ardern asserts – he’s her chosen Deputy PM, the leader of her coalition partner. He has started proceedings in those capacities. Ardern should get ready for what could end up being an embarrassing case that she could have averted if Peters had shown good faith, told her his plans and given her a chance to intervene. Or did he, and she didn’t?

Phil Sheat (Meadowbank, Auckland)

Why is Peters taking legal action regarding the breach of his privacy? Probably “pour encourager les autres”. Otherwise, why would the person(s) responsible be discouraged from doing something similar in the future?

Judith Akkirman (Westmere, Auckland)

I support Peters in his attempt to have those responsible for the reprehensible leaks of his pension error account for themselves in court. Having recently applied for mine, I can see how easy it is even for people who are used to dealing with documents to get it wrong. To then be accused of cheating is intolerable.

You may call it revenge, but National has vilified Peters for decades and targeted his electorate and party votes. Being of Italian descent, I well understand how grudges are preciously held and revenge is infinitely sweet.

Go get ’em, Winnie – wipe those smug Tory smirks off their faces.

Luigi Girardin (Nelson)

In one breath the Editorial says that Peters was “grievously wronged by the disclosure” of his pension overpayment, and in the next that Jacinda Ardern was put “in an invidious position, merely to avenge his ruffled sense of self-righteousness”.

You can’t have it both ways.

Oliver Nicholson (Torbay, Auckland) DISARMAMENT POLICY

After the farce that was the first day of Parliament ( Politics, November 18), there I was, and no doubt many others, with pen poised to react with what I fondly imagined would be something cutting, witty and damning.

But then there was another day, with Trevor Mallard in the Speaker’s chair holding a baby, and others in the House also with babies. The Speaker was disarmingly good-humoured, and seemed to be favouring the Opposition in his pleasant judgments. In the process, fangs were drawn and venom neutralised – including mine.

Might this be the new order? With National out to wreck the new Government with relentless cynicism as it clearly was, are we seeing the

Jacinda effect, fighting back with relentless charm? Dare we hope?

Selwyn Boorman (Waikanae)

Jacinda Ardern’s refreshing leadership has the potential to reflect a more positive MMP environment in which parties come together for the betterment of all New Zealanders.

One of the most powerful statements she has made is that she wants to bring kindness back into politics. This says a lot about her and highlights the lack of historical kindness throughout our political system.

When the usual behaviour of our politicians is all about attack, conflict, focusing on differences, being in Opposition and gaining power at others’ expense, it is no wonder the public and in particular youth are apathetic about voting.

The challenge in front of Ardern and the country is how to replace the existing political model with one that encourages co-operation, collaboration, partnership and kindness.

This time of transition gives the wider community an opportunity to speak up and engage. Let’s start the conversation and support politicians into new behaviours of

working together that brings back respect, honour and kindness.

Jeff Griggs (Whangarei) DIVERSIONARY DEAD END

Bill Ralston suggests Labour give the Greens the job of exploiting the possible new gas field off the east coast of the South Island to keep them busy and out of its hair ( Life, November 11).

But given that burning new fossil-fuel resources will exacerbate climate change, I expect it would take the Greens only a few days to announce that there would be no exploration or exploitation of this field. And I sincerely hope that Labour would do the same.

So, sorry, Bill – there’s no diversionary potential there.

Sue Boyde (Paraparaumu) EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

Marc Wilson’s November 18 Psychology column confuses. The Mind in the Eyes test confirms that some people on the autism spectrum have a deficit in their perception of others’ mood, which helps to explain their relationship difficulties. It also apparently reveals that political right-wingers do not suffer a similar deficit. But to assert from this result that therefore right-wingers may not be cold-hearted or monsters is odd. Indeed, bleeding-heart liberals might say that these people having no psychological justification for their selfish behaviour are more monstrous.

Taking Wilson’s argument further, if the conservative are not cold-hearted because they do not fail the empathy test, does this imply that those on the autism spectrum who do fail the test are cold-hearted?

Having empathy (the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes) may well be a necessary condition to be able to act with compassion, but it is not a sufficient condition. If your value system is such that you see yourself as living in a dogeat-dog world where giving a sucker an even break is just foolish, then empathy, if you have it, becomes no more than a useful tool to make your next sale or take political advantage.

One thing we can take from this column is that we need to be circumspect about the conclusions drawn from psychological testing.

Peter Dawson (Tauranga) FOSTERING ENQUIRING MINDS

The article on Holocaust denial and the same issue’s Editorial (“Theatre of the absurd” and “The challenge of free speech”, November 11) raise issues that must be tackled by our education system.

All children need to learn the basic and often-unpleasant facts about religions and ideologies and develop an attitude of sceptical inquiry. The Information Age brings great possibilities, but also the danger of social friction arising from misinformation and disinformation.

Children who learn strategies for testing truth and reliability of information will cope far better with “alternative facts”, whether from parents, pastors, politicians or social media.

Our school syllabus also needs a stronger dose of ethics,

highlighting the Golden

Rule that says treat others as you’d like to be treated, but with recognition that simplistic rules may clash. We cannot, for example, have meaningful discussions about religious beliefs while mindlessly declaring “respect for all religious beliefs”. A hierarchy of principles is needed.

Anti-Semitism expressed in a mosque is no surprise: Islam rejects the Golden Rule, viewing all non-Muslims, especially Jews, with distaste. The surprise is that we have Islamic schools, probably teaching a watered-down version of the religion, but nonetheless promoting the toxic “one true faith” mindset (intended to prevent assimilation) and conferring spurious legitimacy on a cruel hoax.

We also have schools and home-schoolers employing a dubious programme called Accelerated Christian Education. Evidently, the Ministry of Education does not care if some of our young people grow up unable to distinguish fact from fiction, or recognise an obvious hoax. If this continues, we shall soon face the serious divisions that already afflict some other countries.

Bram Evans (Dunedin) LETTER OF THE WEEK

As a Holocaust survivor, I was blown away by the November 11 Editorial. How heart-warming it is to have a nationally respected publication take up the cudgels in defence against the scurrilous attempts by the ignorant and uninformed to discredit the Holocaust.

Every credit to you, and thank you.

Ruth Filler (Remuera, Auckland) CHEMICAL HAZARDS

Jacqueline Rowarth’s essay espoused the virtues of using chemicals in food production and how, in particular, it has enhanced the quality of life in developing nations (“Chemical imbalance”, September

30). She acknowledged that any chemical ingested in a high-enough dose can have the potential to cause harm, a point with which I concur.

What was lacking was mention of the vulnerability of people exposed to large quantities of pesticides on a regular basis. These include workers in the horticultural and agricultural sectors and people living in areas exposed to spray drift.

When I was a university student, I had a holiday job picking glasshouse tomatoes. The pesticides that I came in contact with were to become a major contributing factor to a debilitating illness that was to last for 12 horrific years.

Chris Emeleus (Bishopdale, Christchurch) UNMENTIONABLE FRANCHISES

I beg your fine sports writer, Paul Thomas, to never

again refer to a team as a franchise. Yes, I know sport is big business, but it’s no fun unless we can still treat it as a game. We should keep dismal corporate language in its own place, far from any playing field. Nick Hancox (Ngatimoti)

QUESTIONABLE QUIPS

Jimmy Carr, the British comedian, relies on jokes about rape and abuse for his shows. To include his gender-related comments in your Quips & Quotes as you did on November 11 is, in my mind, normalising his misogyny. Elizabeth Ashton (St Albans, Christchurch) Jimmy Carr’s quote came from QI. – Ed

NOT JUST CRICKET

I look forward to reading Inglorious Empire (“The business of conquest”, September 30), with no doubt an extensive list of the British villainies in India.

How on Earth did a small group of 18th-century merchants from one of the smaller European countries achieve total domination of the teaming Indian subcontinent?

In the end, the worst failure was Partition. Pakistan is a totally unnecessary country. It is all Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s fault – he was totally impossible. Harrow didn’t help – Nehru was an old boy.

When the British left India, it became the biggest democracy in the world. It was left with a civil service, a good army, excellent railways (much of it the work of Governor Hobson’s son-in-law, the eminent engineer Sir Alexander Rendel), a lingua franca and cricket.

Three cheers for the British Empire, the greatest force for the good of all men and civilisation since the fall of Rome. Denys Oldham (Devonport, Auckland)