OVER TO YOU

Neville Male Nelson, November 13 Derek Austin Nelson, November 14

Lawyered up

As a pensioner of very limited means, I very rarely frequent hostelries, but when an old school friend of 60-odd years was passing through Nelson on a tour of the South Island, I arranged to meet him and his lady companion at the Honest Lawyer in Monaco.

From the moment we arrived, the staff were an absolute delight, friendly and attentive. Nothing was too much trouble. If I were 50-plus years younger, I probably would have fallen in love, they were so pleasant.

There is yet hope for humanity. R C Blair

Nelson, November 9

Generation gap

What a terrible time New Zealand citizens over 70 years of age are having while they are being regularly blamed for pretty much everything that is wrong in our country today.

Firstly, people of the so-called ‘‘Baby Boomer’’ post-World War II generation are being accused, mainly by young, impressionable Kiwis, of being responsible for past huge environmental neglect that has, in part, given cause for the introduction of a raft of measures to mitigate the effects of climate change. Yes, they say, it’s the fault of an uncaring older generation of town and country New Zealanders.

Added to this, we now hear economists commenting on the dire state of the New Zealand housing market, telling us that restricted home ownership, which is now at its lowest level for 70 years, has come about because of what Boomers have done in selfishly accumulating personal wealth.

All of this is highly emotive stuff, and overlooks the difficult times that most older New Zealanders have faced during their lives, when hard work and personal sacrifice were the order of the day. Yes, that has led to many older New Zealanders being financially secure today – and so it should have.

Unfortunately, there will likely be more accusations levelled at our older generation as New Zealand’s favourite pastime, ‘‘the blame game’’, continues unabated. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear more about what the Boomers’ generation has done to create the great country we live in today?

Schools shakeup

Top marks to Chris Hipkins (‘‘Big power shift in schools,’’ Nelson Mail, October 13). It is all the more admirable that this radical change comes from a Labour government – it was David Lange who introduced ‘‘Tomorrow’s Schools’’ back in the 1980s. That was the age of unbridled, head-in-the-sand ideology.

It was passionately believed that any elected bunch of lay folks would have the intelligence, ability and time to successfully undertake the whole running of a school – and at the same time be able to cooperate and agree with other schools in the area to get the big picture right.

It’s good to see that essentially the old school commissions will now be back, doing what they used to do, and did well – advising the education minister about local conditions and needs.

The same ideology also dictated the creation of district health boards – by the same crowd of naive ideologues. Well, their chickens have now come home to roost. Moves are afoot to also drastically reform our bloated, inefficient, decentralised health system. Watch this space. Andy Espersen

Nelson, November 13

Kiwibuild

Labour’s Nelson candidate Rachel Boyack (Nelson Mail, November 13) needs to be more honest with Nelson voters.

She says in respect of Nelson’s housing issues that Kiwibuild has not delivered ‘‘as much as she would have liked’’. The truth is that Labour has not built a single Kiwibuild home in Nelson.

Ms Boyack campaigned heavily in 2017 on Labour’s Kiwibuild policy to build up to 100,000 homes, and at least 1000 to be built in Nelson. This specifically said 1000 homes in year one, 5000 in year two, and 10,000 in year three. Two years have passed, and only 136 have been built nationwide, with most bought from developers. Labour has delivered only 2 per cent of what was promised at the year two mark.

If a business did what Labour has done with Kiwibuild, it would have been done in the courts for breach of contract and fraud. Ms Boyack needs to come clean and admit that she misled Nelson voters with her Kiwibuild promises.