TO THE POINT

Geoffrey Horne (Letters, Nov 7) writes not of capitalism but the crass ideology of neo-liberalism. The Left’s failure to address its siren-call of greed is a damnable indictment.

Chris Slater, Silverstream

Forgiving Winston Peters for ‘‘mistakenly’’ securing a pension overpayment may set an interesting precedent that presumably will also apply to us hapless proletariat should we accidentally do the same. Mostly, Winston seems miffed we all found out. But hey, it apparently must have been innocent given he rapidly refunded the money, and those application forms can be confusing even for a lawyer, and who doesn’t occasionally forget they have a partner?

Jim Young, Belmont

Yes, well I am not surprised Chloe Swarbrick gets heckled (Give MPs

a ‘heckle jar’, Nov 8). She has done very well for herself for someone with a superior ‘‘why is everyone else so dumb’’ attitude. Like many others, she probably wouldn’t be in Government except for the list. Like many of her contemporaries, she is too young to know that heckling is a time-honoured political tradition.

Carole Naylor, Papakowhai

Neither pilot on the Air New Zealand flight to Antarctica (Nov 8) had flown there before; a Civil Aviation requirement for these flights that was ignored by Air New Zealand and not enforced by Civil Aviation. And Justice Mahon’s thorough report covers the ‘‘whiteout’’ experience that the pilots had, when their view of the air and land merged.

John Wilson, Johnsonville

The cartoon (Nov 7) was particularly ugly to imply that the selection of someone with such talent and experience as Christopher Luxon as the National candidate for the Botany electorate was somehow vomit making. Surely across the parliamentary spectrum we want capable individuals to represent us, and we should be grateful that a person with such a broad and successful background would be prepared to sacrifice more lucrative opportunities to serve his community, regardless of party allegiance.

Carole Wright, Khandallah

Minister Shane Jones is right – if immigrants don’t like the rules of our country they are free to return whence they came. His message is exactly the same as we would receive if we were in another country and didn’t like the rules.

Carol Cooper-McCord, Lower Hutt