Toeing the party line

Toeing the party line

Kudos to Ellen Blake from the Mt Victoria Residents’ Association for getting council candidates to give Yes/No answers to some hot questions, at last month’s meeting for Wellington City Council hopefuls for the mayor and Lambton/Pukehīnau ward.

Having been to a few of these things, it’ s very easy for candidates to give bland ‘motherhood and apple pie’ answers that obscure their stance on controversial issues.

(You can read my satirical take on this in the Musings article later in this newspaper.)

On that matter, how do you feel about candidates with a political party backing?  It’s something of a double-edged sword.  On the one hand the party vets them and provides them with a set of known policies that have been road tested.  Like a McDonalds hamburger in a foreign city, you know what you are getting.

But this requirement to toe the party line also means they have less room to exercise their own judgement.

I know of one recent example where a candidate was asked if they supported a particular issue and agreed enthusiastically but after a talk with a more senior member of their party they had to quickly ‘clarify’ their position.  Whether you think this is ok or not, the most important thing is that you get out and vote.

We have a new addition this month – a crossword. 

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the creator, Beau Lucas, is in the last year of primary school; this is not an easy crossword and the solution words are testament to Beau’s fantastic vocabulary. If you get stuck (like me) you can look up the answers on our website.

It's great to continue to get lots of entries to the ULO.  I also enjoy the stories people tell me that may be related to whatever the object is.  Last month the ULO was the weather vane on top of 42 Queens Street apartments.  Several people wrote in to say it was a familiar sight for them. Sarah wrote in to say her cousin lived in the house that was there before the flats, and her Oma Irene lived opposite.  Sally remembers it from when she lived over the road in the mid-90s, and Alex told me he had a direct view of the weather vane,  and passed the interesting reasons that roosters are often on church steeples.  It’s lovely to make these connections.