Labour pains, maybe future hospital gains
For those mourning the loss of Labour in the general election, there is a consolation prize: National has promised to reverse the cuts to the new Dunedin hospital.
"A National-led government will ensure the hospital will open with all the beds, operating theatres and radiology services that Labour took away".
Their statement says the hospital will open with 421 beds, 13 main operating theatres and a high-tech PET scanner and all will be operational from day one.
According to its brochure, delivered to my letterbox during the election campaign, the new National-led government promises to accelerate progress on what it sees as a "painfully slow-moving project”, which began "six long years ago".
Who could possibly wish for anything more to soothe away our Labour pains?
Lois Galer
Dunedin
Asking why
Voters decisively rejected the Labour Party on Saturday night, moving away in all directions. The other main parties, National, Act New Zealand, Greens, New Zealand First, and Te Pati Maori all celebrated success.
Labour will be analysing why. No doubt the party will grasp reasons beyond their control: Covid, global economy, Ukraine etc, but Labour has lost the support of its traditional base: ordinary working people who have watched it being overrun by academics, pubic servants, and legal activists, all pushing idealistic social reforms at the expense of freedom, common sense and realism.
At the same time, Green Party supporters must surely be wondering why they restrict themselves to only being in government with Labour when care of the environment is embraced across the spectrum. James Shaw should consider forming a breakaway "New Green Party” taking only environmental policies with him and leaving the socialist ones behind.
Such a party could always work with both National and Labour.
John Day
Wanaka
Dog gone
Those of us who have a cherished and much-loved family member in the form of a dog will be heartbroken at reading the killing of such a dog by an unsupervised (and probably unregistered and not microchipped) beast of a dog recently. The owner will be devastated. Every time this happens we all ask why are these dogs even allowed here? Nothing happens, until the next time.
These dogs are being banned in the UK. How hard is it to do the same here? Often these dogs seem to be a mascot for a certain breed of people who shouldn't be allowed to have dogs in the first place. Bad dogs, bad owners, who cares, get rid of them.
I am not suggesting all of us need to own poodles but owners of these dangerous breeds need to be scrutinised closely and if in any doubt, remove the animal.
Graham Bulman
Roslyn
Tight fit
As usual I much appreciated Joe Bennett's column (ODT, 12.10.23) on Jeans or Levi's, the iconic brand that my crowd always wore. His column reminded me of a line in Umberto Eco's book Travels in Hyperreality, which he wrote about his trip to the United States.
He had never, like Bennett's father, owned a pair of Levi’s. On buying a pair and wearing them for the first time, his comment was: "A man thinks differently when his testicles are being squeezed."
I had never thought about it, but it's something that may occur to an adult who's never before worn them.
Kevin Burke
Mosgiel
Mutiny on the Otago campus welcomed
So, the professors at Otago University have risen up in number to call the senior leadership to account, at last. Phew, well done.
For many years now, whenever there has been a squeeze on finances, the senior leadership have obliged a number of staff, usually academic, to walk the plank to save the day. Senior leadership jobs are never in jeopardy because they never get it wrong, it seems, even though all the bad stuff has happened on their watch. They won’t even apologise for their role in backing the university into a corner, on their watch.
The Mayans and the Ancient Romans tried the same sort of sacrifices to distract the population from their ineptitude and where did that get them?
Dr Pat Duffy
Opoho
No flag
It was interesting to read Gwynne Dyer's recent article (ODT, 6.10.23) in which he wrote about the Armenian genocide of 1915-25. While 149 countries have acknowledged that the millions of deaths constituted a genocide only 34 have formally recognised it as such. No New Zealand government has officially recognised the genocide over fears Turkey, which committed the atrocities, will ban Kiwis from visiting the Gallipoli battlefields. Five years ago, visiting the museum attached to the Vank Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Esfahan, Iran, there was a map of the world with national flags pinned to the countries acknowledging the genocide. As a group of Kiwis it was embarrassing to read of the dreadful events, then note that there was no New Zealand flag.
June Turnbull
Dunedin
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
