Letters: Politicians getting it in the neck

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. These are the letters as published in the paper on 12 December 2012.

Science is warped to suit gospel of deniers

It's hard to know whether Garth George's impersonation of Victor Meldrew is for real. OK, whatever, I'm biting.

This week it's the politicians getting it in the neck.

Point-scoring, self-aggrandising, circumlocutory hypocrites.

Well, that's just harsh. Heck, that's me without my morning coffee.

Surely Mr George can't be generalising about all 121 Members of Parliament or our locally elected councillors?

Well, as William Blake said, to generalise is to be an idiot. Ouch!

Personally, I don't mind politicians. In fact, I vote for one every three years along with a party tick to represent my share of the popular vote.

So I pretty much get the politicians I deserve and that's how it's supposed to work, right?

But it was Mr George's opinion on global warming (July 9) that really gave me pause for thought.

Apparently, fossil fuel emissions have no impact on global warming. What's more, Mr George figured this out years ago, bless his socks.

Well, denial, of course, is the new black and science is the new belief system to be cherry-picked to suit all manner of weird creeds flapping around on the cloud.

But here's the thing, Mr George - the truth is out there, as Mulder would say.

Or, in this case, the evidence is out there.

Web of Science, that premier index to internationally peer-review scientific research, cites almost 14,000 articles concluding that carbon emissions from human activity are responsible for current global warming.

True, there are 24 rejections, but with that ratio, go figure.

I think I see a carbon plume escaping from the top of Mr George's head.

Someone cap that, please.

Sue Foster, Omokoroa

Mind your own

Isn't it wonderful when letter-writers who are not even Tauranga City ratepayers, such as Bianca Ruegg of Katikati (BOP Times, December 8), suggest that the Tauranga council gets its "A into G" on whether or not a museum is to be built?

Bianca, try lobbying your own council (Western Bay of Plenty District Council) for some of the funds that will be needed by the TCC, then feel free to express a viewpoint.

Don't pay rates? Then you don't have a say.

(Abridged.)

Glenn Harris Ohauiti

School cheated

I am just disgusted on reading about the public money from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o te Kura Kokiri's school.

Those concerned used money intended for the school on a trip to the Cook Islands, shipping clothing and household goods overseas, a TV subscription, and paying for tyres and repairs on vehicles not owned by the school.

The people guilty of such misuse of public money have cheated the school's students out of money earmarked for furthering their education. So those responsible ought to be named and shamed, and reparations made by them.

Mary Brooks, Tauranga

i-Site profit

The Tauranga City Council lost control of $285,000 when it gave this amount of ratepayer funding to Tourism BOP for the express purpose of visitor information services.

Using the spurious argument that the Mount i-Site had to be closed because it was losing money, Tourism BOP completely overlooked the fact that the money-making i-Port is really just an extension of the i-Site in Salisbury Ave, and earnings at the i-Port are therefore part of its income.

Rhys Arrowsmith, general manager of Tourism BOP, was pleased to report that the city i-Site in Willow St was profitable, from which it is obvious that no ratepayer funding was needed.

In a recent published article, he extolled the virtues of Tauranga's cruise passenger "container made arrival crush pen" as a shining example for other ports to emulate, and it cost only $140,000.

That being the case, it seems that Tourism BOP was overpaid and should refund $145,000 to the Tauranga City Council, ie the ratepayers.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Samuel Smith, Otumoetai

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