Thanks, but no . . .

In the wake of a nerve agent attack on a Russian citizen in Salisbury, England, UK High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke has warned New Zealand that a free trade deal with Russia could impact free trade deals with the European Union and Britain.

Clarke tells us New Zealand, ‘‘more than any other country, needs the rules-based order to work’’. Russian aggression, she says, is ‘‘an affront to how the world works’’.

Clarke presumably remembers the US/UK March 2003 invasion of Iraq. This act of aggression violated the Nuremberg Charter, the United Nations Charter, and UN Security Council Resolution 1441. It precipitated a long, bloody war that resulted in well over 100,000 civilian deaths.

New Zealand defied enormous pressure from both Britain and the US to participate because the invasion so blatantly defied and undermined international law — the rules-based order.

Before Clarke again lectures New Zealand, she should

remember her country’s decision to ignore the law and to invade a country that was posing no threat to either the UK or the US.

This terrible crime remains truly an ‘‘affront to how the world works’’.

PETER DYER Mt Victoria

year’s likely 3.9 per cent increase is a reduction, when actually it is double the inflation rate.

Then there is our regional council, which is whacking up rates under the pretence of unforeseen ‘river flood protection’ measures, but there are no rivers in Wellington city.

To add insult to injury, GST then gets added to my rates bill. So Michael Cullen needs to look at total taxes for all government services: local and ‘regional’, as well as national.

NEIL DOUGLAS Thorndon should be a big part of our school and any school.

It’s a bit like living in France and speaking English; I think half the tourists that go to France want to go there because of the culture and maybe even learn the language.

But tourists in New Zealand want to see the land, yes, but very little is spent learning about New Zealand’s culture and very few tourists want to learn the language, and I think that New Zealand should make our culture a bigger thing and put more time and effort into making te reo our culture.

I know I want to learn te reo and I think we should make more opportunities for people to learn it. BEN BIRKETT

Northland