TO THE POINT
If Rod Shaw (Letters, Feb 6) wants to justify atheism or any other religious stance from the crackpot blasphemy of Sarah Sanders, that mercenary mouthpiece of the regrettable Trump, then he’s in bigger trouble than he ought to be.
Ken Edgecombe, Porirua
The truth is that social welfare needs to be dramatically increased, sanctions dumped and moves towards a universal basic income adopted. National knows that if the poor actually benefited positively from welfare, they would start voting instead of recoiling from the process
Peter Petterson, Lower Hutt
Reducing car chases is easily done. Charge all persons in a stolen car with all the offences committed by the driver. People will not get into a stolen car if they will face car theft and driving charges. Remove the audience and joy riding will fade away. Why, in all the Treaty coverage, do we never see the the printed version of the first three articles? Surely all New Zealanders should know, if not the text, the substance of these.
Anne Lee, Wellington
Bravo, Nathan Hales (Letters, Feb 7). We fiddle around pretending to address the problems of the world by banning plastic bags when we should face the fact there are too many people. Let’s start fining people for having more than two children, instead of rewarding them. Until the world faces this problem head on we are doomed.
Pauline Harris Havelock North
Who, in 2019, the age of equality and anti-sexism, designed – and even more horrific – approved the design of the women’s Twenty20 top depicting a pink camisole?
Vickie Lyons, Trentham
I am all in favour of the teaching of New Zealand history in all our schools as widely as possible. Provided it is all our human history from when Ma¯ori first arrived and not just the colonial history as promoted by Myles Ferris (Five Ma¯ori thinkers, Feb 8). The history of Ma¯ori pre-1840 makes pretty grim reading at times but that is what it is. To deny it is to present a sanitised view of New Zealand’s past that does nobody any good.
Graham Dick, Masterton
In Wellington City Council’s selection process for LIme scooters, I presume the mayor will ensure that due weight is given to those companies (and their staff) which, unlike some multinational platforms, pay all their taxes in New Zealand.
Richard Scales, Breaker Bay
Excellent letter from Garry Whincup (Feb 8), applauding Joe Bennett’s article on corporate language and quotes a recruitment agency and wine critics murdering our language and commonsense with pretentious twaddle is spoilt only by his own misuse of English. Garry, we cannot ‘‘coin a phrase from my day’’; perhaps we can re-mint it, though.
Kevin Bateman, Lower Hutt
In Wellington everyone runs red lights – cars, bikes, pedestrians, buses and trucks. The reason is obvious: the light phases, in many cases, are too short. Why pick on buses? After all we expect them to be on time. Jenny McKinnon, Te Aro