McGowan a lone voice
With the federal and Victorian state budgets due to be handed down in roughly two months and the ARTC’s recent debacle over its weekend “maintenance” works, one can only hope to God that the local state MPs are actually pulling their weight to get the Victorian government to chip in more funds, like Cathy McGowan is with the federal government, to bring the North-East line up to scratch.
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With that said, firstly, I can’t help but notice that, despite the declining services in recent months, at the very least since Bill Tilley was re-endorsed by the Liberal Party (December 9, 2016), that he and Tim McCurdy have gone virtually quiet on the issue, despite months of criticism of the Labor Party between November 2014 and the state 2016-17 budget.
Secondly, it seems in my view, Cathy McGowan has been able to get more traction since the 2016 federal election, along with Steph Ryan, in getting the federal government to a degree, pardon the pun, on board.
The only state MPs seemingly willing to deal with V/Line services in Northern Victoria are Jaclyn Symes and Suzanna Sheed, the independent member for Shepparton.
Geoffrey Butt, Wodonga
Don’t blame British
The article by Father Brendan Lee (Irish Hardship etc) is a classic piece of Irish ignorance and refusal to look at facts. Does Father Lee have no appreciation that to understand history you need to look at it in context? Or is he deliberately pushing the myth of the uniquely hard done-by Irish?
Even a brief search of the internet will soon enlighten him to the levels of hardship being experienced in Britain at that time. And does anyone, anywhere, still take the antics of Tony (weapons of mass destruction) Blair seriously?
Social conditions in Britain were appalling from the 1790s on due to the industrial revolution and the desperate migration of farm workers replaced by mechanisation, to the cities looking for work.
The 1834 Poor Law set up workhouses where the deliberately harsh conditions resulted in many deaths, most of them hurried along by totally inadequate food levels.
For example, in 1834 the inhabitants of the Andover Workhouse were found to be starving and eating rotting meat off bones, just to stay alive. In 1844 the average age of death in Macclesfield was 24 years. Even by the 1880s the Booth report showed that 25 per cent of the population of London (7 million souls) were living below subsistence level i.e. were eventually going to starve, while a further 10 per cent were in the process of starvation.
Sorry Father Lee, even if the events of nearly 200 years ago are still worth endless repetition and portioning of blame (and most non-Irish people think it is time for the Irish to move on) you might at least get your facts right.
Ireland’s problems were not caused by “The British” but by a ruling class in Britain and Ireland who could not care less about the suffering of the poor, let alone what country the poor were dying in.
Charles Lipscombe, Chiltern
Pollies and mistruths
It never ceases to amaze me how dishonest politicians are.
They privatised the electricity supply and said it would be better and no dearer, who believes that now.
They told us our education system and health system were world class, well maybe third world.
The NBN was going to be world class and who believes that now. I personally think carrier pigeons would be faster.
B Scott-Young, Albury
Letter of the week
The winner of the letter of the week is Rod Sangster of Yackandandah. You can collect your prize from the offices of The Border Mail at 1 McKoy Street, Wodonga. Send your letters to letters@bordermail.com.au.