Self-publicising not enough for savvy voters

Jonathan Corfe (Oct 18) comes across as an amiable and a sincere chap but he fails to understand a very crucial point. What candidates write and say in their own Facebook page, websites and campaign posters, may be good enough for a gullible voter but not nearly good enough for a savvy, serious voter.

Apart from eliminating the nutters, self-publicising serves little purpose in determining a candidate’s true calibre and intelligence. It also reveals little about their true values and real motivations for the office.

A candidate applying for a public office is like a person facing a jury trial. The jurors are the voters and the lawyers are the media. The role of the jury is to carefully consider all the relevant information and arrive at a decision. It is not their job to obtain or authenticate the information.

Our voters could not form informed opinions because our media failed to fuel information-generating debate. Where were the hard-hitting and in-depth candidate interviews?

Mr Corfe should pick a bone with the media not the voters. It is perfectly valid and arguably much better not to vote when your vote cannot be well-informed. Maybe the low turnout means than we have many savvy, not gullible, voters. DONNA MILES

Christchurch

Squint at SmartGate

I amsure many others share the problem I had with the SmartGate system.

I used it when returning to New Zealand from overseas, but found that because I was instructed to remove my glasses, so that the camera could recognise my admittedly lovely eyes, I could not read the instructions on what to do next, as the print on the card was then too small to see properly.

I would therefore need either to memorise in advance what I have to do, which is impractical, or squint at the card and hope I have read it correctly.

I amsure this can be easily rectified.

Dare I hope that NZ Customs have not been too short sighted to remedy this problem in order to enable we myopes in the travelling community to access the system.

Other than the difficulty with the small print I consider it to be an excellent and, dare I say, farsighted scheme. VIC SMITH

Shirley

Filled with pride

While leaving the stadium after the fabulous victory of Canterbury over Auckland, the lovely family in front of us revealed that they were Tyler Bleyendhal’s parents.

I had little time to express how proud we are of their extraordinary son making us happy Canterbury fans.

On that same day, Sophie Pascoe’s front-page story was a reminder of this great feeling, when talent and brilliance in people that we are not particularly close to fill our hearts with pride. EDUARDO BERNARDI

Middleton