Letters to the editor: Dark Ages attitudes, bad drivers, Trump works, urgent action

New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd leading a hikoi at Parihaka. Photo/file

Representation attitudes

I suggest that if R E Stephens watches the 17-minute TED Talk by Andrew Judd, the ex-Mayor of New Plymouth, they might change their mind about who wants to return to the Dark Ages. Andrew, who experienced it all first-hand, explains attitudes to Maori representation very well, and I commend his video to all ratepayers.
Alan Armstrong
Rotorua

Reporting bad drivers

Well done Sonya Bateson for your editorial on texting and driving (Opinion, January 13). Would anybody who sees drivers texting please take details and report them online. Just Google "report a bad driver", click report online, give car registration number and other details and the car owner will be sent a police reprimand. They cannot be fined but an official letter must make some people think about their life-threatening behaviour.
Paul Taylor
Papamoa

Trump obsession

Tommy Wilson's obsession with Donald Trump is laughable when you consider what the US economy is doing since he took office. He inherited a mess thanks to the corrupt Obama regime, he has turned it around and made it work. Remember Tommy, socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
Neil Harvey
Welcome Bay

Take action

We were also travelling towards Tauranga last Saturday night and we would have been on the Apata curves only a short time before the tragic accident. I can confirm that the road was wet and as councillor MacKay says, this road is unforgiving. I, like many others, have driven on this road for some years and know you have to drive to the conditions. But some people do not do this, so there will be more deaths on this road until it is made safer. Unfortunately, with the change of government, there is less priority to do this. At Prime Minister Ardern's pre-election speech at Tauranga, she never mentioned the State Highway 2 upgrade, all she was interested in doing for this region was building the high-speed rail. This would be fine, eventually, but I do not believe it will save lives. It is imperative that Transport Minister Twyford takes urgent action here. We must all support Mayor Webber in getting Twyford up here as soon as possible, to assess the situation. I call on all the local MPs to support the mayor in this. We, the road users, can also lobby the minister by email. Let's make this road safer in 2018.
John Watt
Tauranga