Letters: National's leadership agonies nothing to keep us up at night

National Party leader Simon Bridges. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Regarding Heather du Plessis-Allan's column ("The right time to roll Bridges", April 26), the difficulties facing NZ far exceed National choosing a leader to nab an election. We have been floored by a pandemic and this is no time for party politicking. The country needs to go onto a war footing: the PM must form a new government that includes the opposition.

Simon Bridges strikes me as a fundamentally decent and capable man, whose bark is more attractive than Judith Collins' bite. Also, Jacinda Ardern must ask the help of Don Brash and Gareth Morgan, and any other Kiwi with intellectual prowess and imagination. We will need to introduce a universal basic wage and a proper capital gains tax. Time for a change, but the answer is not National. It's a fundamental change, not a rearrangement of seats around the picnic table.
Dennis N Horne, Howick

Country owes Ardern

Heather du Plessis-Allan feels the Government will have to answer for the damage caused by too restrictive a lockdown. How many deaths would have been necessary before she and others felt it was justified — 200, 500, 1000?

We saw how Covid-19 blasted through exposed mini populations, such as residential-care homes. With a timid approach one could easily extrapolate these cluster effects to a wider population. We could then have beheld the sight of refrigerated trucks outside Middlemore Hospital. Our Government did what it needed to do to prevent carnage, and the even bigger economic hit that would have resulted from an explosion of cases.
Thanks Jacinda, we owe you.
Gordon Love, Onehunga

Dying with dignity

I don't agree with the claim that euthanasia involves "dying with dignity". I see dignity as a quality of behaviour, not as something given to us, or taken from us, by circumstance or by other people. We are especially aware of dignified (or undignified) behaviour when it occurs in response to misfortune or hardship, including illness. I sympathise with the desire of the helplessly ill to re-establish control and to use that control to avoid the worst of the hardship of illness.
Gavan O'Farrell, Lower Hutt

Trumpian chess tactics

One upside of the lockdown is the chance to play more chess with our 6-year-old. Of course, his decision-making is a work in progress. At times he'll move the stronger pieces into action with Trumpian bravado, only to suffer quick humiliation as his vulnerable king is unprotected. Chastened, he'll shift to a more Ardernian sensibility. Focused solely on protecting the king, for some time his formation looks impressively secure and sensible. In the end, however, with the "non-essential" pieces being gradually trapped and removed, the result is the same.
Stephen Bayldon, Mt Roskill

Lockdown things to miss

Good things have come out of the lockdown that I will miss when it is over. Things like the amazing quietness and calmness, no traffic noise, hearing the birds sing, no noise from lawnmowers and weed eaters, little to no traffic on the roads. Also seeing families, mum, dad and kids, out walking and riding together and chatting happily, and greeting strangers with a welcome "Hello". Seeing kids' little chalked messages on the footpath saying things like "Stay calm, we are in this together", the bears in the windows, the notices on my neighbours' front wall that say "no noses in the roses". Having the supermarket to yourself (almost), friends ringing to check on you, the kids asking if you need anything at the supermarket, and the cookies left in the letterbox from my daughter.

And, quite perversely, the daily Covid-19 State of the Nation radio address from our amazing Prime Minister, and cool, calm Minister Robertson and director general of public health Ashley Bloomfield.It will be sad to get back to reality in some respects but, then, a cafe-brewed flat white would be fantastic.
J R Jones, Mairangi Bay