Why ignore and infuriate the public by asking a stupid question in the first place? Photo / Bevan Conley
Why ignore and infuriate the public by asking a stupid question in the first place? Photo / Bevan Conley
Why ask the question in first place?
Zaryd Wilson's editorial on the referendum to reduce the number of councillors made a lot of sense (Chronicle, October 30).
I can't disagree with his arguments. I suspect the public support for 10 councillors was nothing but a protest vote.
If the questionhad been "Do you want six councillors instead of 12" the answer would have been a resounding six!
It seems the majority of voters have little faith in our councillors. It's often the most popular people who get elected, even though in my opinion they often make poor councillors.
So why ignore and infuriate the public even further by asking a stupid question in the first place, if you had no intention of standing by the referendum?
If all councillors wanted to do was feel the pulse of the community on this issue, they should have paid a pollster to undertake an opinion poll.
My suggestion to voters is to watch a few of the council meeting videos on the council website and you will quickly see the deadwood that should be jettisoned next election.
As of this writing the official US Covid-19 toll is 9,189,873 cases and 233,891 deaths.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration is before the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare, which would strip healthcare from an additional 10 million Americans, added to the 12 million who already lost it due to unemployment.
In response to his mismanagement and effective surrender to the pandemic, four reputable scientific journals, including both the pre-eminent New England Journal of Medicine and Science, have taken the unprecedented step of calling for Trump to be fired, and endorsed Joe Biden.
Twenty Republican federal and state prosecutors have called Trump a threat to the rule of law, endorsing Democrat Joe Biden.
Alongside Trump's cosiness with dictators generally and America's adversaries in particular North Korea, Russia - Trump has abandoned allies (the Kurds), and cut and run from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan people to the mercy of the Taliban.
His administration has forcibly separated and deported immigrant families whose only sin was applying for refuge. Five hundred and forty-five children have been permanently rendered orphans - each of these child separations, done deliberately, out of policy, is arguably a separate crime against humanity.
Trump's campaign has politicised public health measures (mask wearing), encouraged violence, and given oxygen to white supremacists and widened fissures in the American fabric to divide and thus weaken the nation at precisely the time when what is needed is all hands on board.
As a patriotic American who served my country of origin in its military, while the current Commander-in-Chief refused to go "as Vietnam was too far away", I have done my small but necessary civic duty. I voted and my ballot was received in New Hampshire, in time to count. [Abridged]
