Letters: Give Trump a chance

Yes, Trump may be guilty frequently of "false modesty", but he is getting on with the job, a reader says.

Give Trump a chance

So Bryan Gould joins the lynch mob excoriating Donald Trump for everything (Opinion, May 22).

Gould had a distinguished career as a British Labour MP and is, I'm sure, still in touch with many of his old colleagues still active in British and European politics. Part of the "old club" to put it another way, and something President Trump most certainly is not.

Now I found Gould a charming man when I interviewed him for TV some years ago, but it can't glaze over the fact that he believes the president can do no good.

Gould's colleagues had zero success dealing with Korea and solving the Middle East tensions. Now at the first sign that Trump may be able to broker a denuclearisation deal all we get is scorn.

Shameful really to show such animus towards the leader of the free world for trying a different approach to diplomacy using a bit of stick to go with the carrot. Yes, Trump may be guilty frequently of "false modesty", but he is getting on with the job while Britain can't even follow the will of its people and leave the corrupt EU.

"Plunging the Middle East into turmoil" - you have to have the telescope pointed 180 degrees wrong Gould. I guess the Hillary style of a world leader is more your cup of tea where Gaddafi was wooed and screwed, the "Arab Spring" was promoted, and the tensions and turmoil between Arab states were never worse.

Murray Maunder
Otumoetai

Let's move on

Can we move on from rehashing the ward referendum? The community has overwhelmingly spoken. They do not want councils divided by ethnicity, and they expect councils to honour the democratic principle.

I expect Māori to have input into council decision-making and I expect the council to consider those views but what I do not accept is for Māori to have an unqualified right of veto. To elevate the Māori world view above all other's world views is unacceptable.

The Treaty cannot imply a superior form of citizenship. Any argument for different treatment under Article 2 or 3, based purely on an ethnic basis, is fundamentally repugnant.

We need to be country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equality under the law. If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders, we will fail as a country.

Richard Prince
Welcome Bay

Māori wards

I wish to take issue with Leigh Neilson and C Humphreys (Letters, May 28), first over the, in my view, derogatory comments about the nine elected councillors and mayor and secondly, the result of the Māori wards referendum for the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The councillors and mayor are voted in every three years democratically to work for the interests of all ratepayers and residents (including minorities).

If those councillors deemed it necessary to further the representation for better decision-making purposes for the good of all, that's what they should do.

Bring the public in on a race-based referendum and of course, you're going to get a 78/22 result or as I indicated in earlier letters 85/15 or thereabouts. (Abridged)

Doug Morris
Tauranga

Political influence

In Europe, the US and, now, Australia, there's concern expressed about 'outsiders' trying to influence commercial and political affairs of different countries. How come I haven't heard the tiniest squeak about foreigners pouring millions of dollars into Ireland's Yes campaign this past month?

Joy Z.Marks
Greerton