Inheriting worst leader your money can buy
When anti-monarchist dogma overcomes both common sense and academic reasoning.
I was amazed to read the short article by Laine Priestley, quoting Otago academic Prof Andrew Geddis: questioning the role of the royal line in democracies because you can get a "bad ‘un".
Making this comment as Donald Trump wrecks international norms and has his own citizens arrested or shot in the streets for exercising their constitutional rights, shows a particular dogmatic ability to ignore the realities.
It might be suggested that Donald Trump is a short-lived phenomena. but you need only look at the lifetime appointments he has made to the US Supreme Court to see that simply isn't true.
So, academics, you may feel we don't need the monarchy, please, at least try to be intellectually honest in your assessment of the situation.
Your theoretical "bad ‘un" really ought to have been accompanied by acknowledging the "idiot ‘un" that is actually in office by way of a democratic vote in the US, not his lineage.
While I am ambivalent on the monarchy, I acknowledge it has an established history that seems to work, while some democracies suffer the best politicians money can buy.
Fresh fields
Re "Queenstown has moved past pre-Covid numbers" (ODT 17.2.26).
I am a local and after visiting Queenstown annually for 20 years I had my last visit in 2025. I have been priced and squeezed out of that market.
I will now spend my money further afield.
Interplanetary craft
I would love to know what planet Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon are on.
They say the economy is good and unemployment is good.
So the 720 Warehouse staff to lose their jobs have already got employment elsewhere?
Both Willis and Luxon have their heads in the sand. It is about time they started asking lower-paid people what is really happening.
I am sure they would get a shock.
Motto meaning
Graham Redding's homily on the University of Otago's sapere aude (Opinion ODT 18.2.26) has been left behind by the forces of progress. The motto is now, I believe, "a place of many firsts"; i.e., almost everybody gets one.
Fair apportioning
Re Options for mayors governing regional Otago: I would like to think a fairer way to apportion voting is to base it on rates levied in each district.
I farm 172ha on the Taieri and pay rates per annum of $58,830.95 to the Dunedin City Council and rates of $35,194.37 to the Otago Regional Council.
Our rates to the ORC are for drainage and flood protection and I would hope a system of users (ratepayers) costs would be fairer and lead to better decisions.
That was the day
I have a feeling that many of us, in years to come, will all look back wistfully at the summer of 2025-26 and say, "Yes, I remember. It was on a Thursday, wasn’t it?"
Collins for Law Commission: I beg to differ
It beggars belief why you give Judith Collins appointment as head of the Law Commission such an easy pass (Editorial ODT 20.2.26).
Yes, the appointment process was flawed. However, contrary to your claim that her recent past does not "render her incapable" of her role, you only have to peruse her recent media posts to bely this.
We see her trumpeting her photo ops with White House appointees Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, and worst of all Kristi Noem. Judith writes on her FB post, "It’s lovely to catch up with my friend Kristi Noem". Although this was before Noem’s attempts to defend her Ice agents killing two civilians, Judith Collins is more than tainted by these Trumpian associations.
Let’s just tone down the accolades on Judith’s retirement from politics: she is hardly a centrist within the National Party, the evidence goes right back to her correspondence with Cameron Slater (see Dirty Politics, by Nicky Hager).
Unlike your editorial, I question Ms Collins’ non-partisan ability to comply with Law Commission’s statute to "approach each law reform review with an open mind" to improve confidence that the country's laws support a modern democracy and just society.
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