Climate conundrum
This Government's response to climate change is like focusing on swatting an annoying fly off your face while a crocodile chews on your leg. The ill-thought-out ban on gas exploration has hastened our record increase in the use of imported dirty coal.
Surely a wiser way forward is to
switch to lesser polluting gas until alternative power created by wind, solar and hydro generation is available.
Add in the mad rush to all things electric, where the power is either unsuitable or unavailable and it's a recipe for a very uncertain future.
Worse, if aluminium stays at its current high price, then the Bluff smelter might stay commissioned and all that hoped-for excess power will remain unavailable to the national grid.
Short-sighted, purely ideological, political decisions don't often end well in the longer term.
James Archibald, Birkenhead
Confronting views
I read Madison Wood's article (NZ Herald, August 9) with interest. Having done my secondary education in England in the decade after the war, I find it difficult to understand the issues of today she talks about. I never experienced them and I suppose they were there then but invisible and just not talked about.
But in the same paper, Matt Heath makes good points and talks about using rational argument and debate rather than simply dismissing contrary views as wrong. Perhaps there is a connection.
Sadly, we live in a confrontational society but reasonable discussion might help.
Alan Milton, Cambridge.
Better experience
With no disrespect, disregard, condoning, nor forgetting the traumas of the abuse victims of Dilworth, my 15-year-old son was fortunate enough to be offered a placement in the mid-2000s. Initially, he opposed the move but within one week he was a changed boy for the better.
Dilworth instilled in him a strong sense of pride, unity, multicultural awareness and loyalty. So much so, he and his best friend have had the school emblem tattooed on to their arms.
At weekends a lot of the boys chose to stay in school and not go home as they were so happy there. Sunday night chapel would stir emotions, with the boys almost lifting the roof with their glorious singing of old-fashioned hymns accompanied by the organ.
The teaching and the guidance, the uniforms, sports equipment and all the facilities were exceptional, not to mention the food.
I will be forever indebted and am eternally grateful to Dilworth for the most generous, positive opportunity afforded my son. For us, it can be equated to winning the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Thank you Dilworth.
Sarah Robinson, Huapai.
Missing the mark
At face value, Jarrod Gilbert (NZ Herald, August 9) presents a compelling argument for the prompt establishment of a national firearms register.
There have clearly been problems with licence holders selling firearms to the criminal element and a trace on all owners and arms would seem to address that problem to some extent.
However, there is a glaring problem; all it will take will be one disaffected member of the force or one clever computer hacker and the nation will have a far worse problem than exists now. The criminal element will know exactly where to go to obtain a firearm for free.
Then expect an upsurge in home invasions and the uninterrupted flow of firearms to criminal purposes. A register is an illusory safeguard.
John Garwood, Te Kūiti.
Hobbit forming
To prioritise funding for Amazon's Lord of the Rings series (NZ Herald, August 6), rather than public housing and climate change, to name a few, defies comprehension. To add to this tragicomic fiasco, the Treasury conceded that ultimately the $199 million spent to subsidise filmmakers was poor value for money. How insightful.
"The oversight appears to have been the result of analysing two rather limited budget priorities, meeting critical cost pressures, and funding time-sensitive and high-priority manifesto commitments." Yes, they really said that.
Perhaps Treasury has spent too much time in Middle-earth, and it's entirely possible they received their BAs in BS from Rivendell University, because they are certainly speaking Elvish.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
