The 5 million are going to need a lot of loos, loaves and fishes

It got me wondering how they would all fit. According to Tourism Canberra, there are 6600 hotel beds in the city, so each protester would have to share a room with about 750 of their fellows. Cosy.

However, the protesters seem to favour tents and campervans.

Allowing relatively large tent sites, about 1.25 million of them would be needed each night, taking up an area the equivalent of a square seven kilometres on a side (49 square kilometres). This is about 7 per cent of the total green-space area of Canberra City. It would cramped, considering all the trees, rocks, and slopes, but could be possible under refugee camp conditions.

Then there's food, water, and ablutions. The city's normal population would increase by nearly 17 times, as would the need for food and water. That' seventeen times the warehouse space, and seventeen times the transport load.

The best figures I could find say there are about 17,000 public toilets in Australia as a whole. Say a generous 2000 in Canberra, say three visits per person per day, meaning perhaps 7000 visits per toilet per day, or about one every 20 seconds (are you going to be in there all day?).

Maybe they haven't thought this through.

It's strange that people getting their information from social media and Sky News would be out of touch with reality.

Steve Evans's ("Alien invasion which offends this rational city of science", February 5, 2022) doesn't apply the same standards to left-wing protest as he does to our latest "invaders" from the right.

There is little rationality in Extinction Rebellion or Black Lives Matter; much like these anti-vaxxers touting individual rights, ER and BLM bandy ostensibly fine notions (anti-racism, environmental concern) with one-eyed certainty to excuse "righteous" mob nastiness.

Science doesn't enter the picture. Steve is offended by the new mob for "the arrogant way in which they park on our public lawns and attack our buildings".

Perhaps Steve has forgotten similar ugliness from the protesters he prefers.

I agree 100 per cent with Steve Evans' article "Alien invasion which offends this rational city of science" (canberratimes.com.au, February 5, 2021).

I had a cause to drive to Civic on Saturday morning and witnessed a mob of moronic anti-vaxxers and anti-everything-else-that-makes-sense protesters, blocking long stretches of the southbound lane of Northbourne Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue.

They were presumably on their way to a Parliament House with hardly any politicians inside; bringing with them their kids, dogs, pro-Trump propaganda, rebel flags, and so on ad nauseam.

Arguably, judging by our vaccination rates, at least 98.6 per cent of Canberrans don't want them here.

There should a zoo created in a remote part of Australia where all such so-called "protesters" should be locked up if and when they become sick with COVID-19. They should not be admitted to any hospital, just left to fend for themselves.

The proposed ARM model is disappointing. While successful monarchies globally, and the constitutional role of the position, require an apolitical sovereign, their model supports replacing the Governor-General with a politician or an associate from the main political parties.

The constitution provides for a separate judiciary, executive (an apolitical administration) and legislature (Parliament), each with separate roles in the administration of our democracy.

The legislature has subsumed control of the executive, significantly changing its focus from serving the Australian public to serving the legislature.

This provides the legislature with effective political control of executive decisions and information. What does this mean day-to-day for Australian democracy? Consider: political rorting of taxpayer funds; political control of misinformation; politically motivated denial of procedural fairness to welfare recipients; diminishing executive expertise; politicisation of FOI; and so on. Clearly separation of powers was critical to our democracy.

Let's rebrand the Governor-General as the Administrator-General. They could retain functions key to the operation of the constitution; devolve ceremonial functions to the Legislature; absorb responsibility for administration of an independent executive; and ensure appointments are apolitical and not the result of a populist election. That would get my vote.

The anti-vaxxer, anti-mask (and possibly anti-science?) protesters who have descended upon Canberra will likely cause a spike in local COVID-19 cases.

I saw many people without masks in the Canberra Centre on the weekend; many more than before the convoy arrived.

They were walking around with impunity.

Where were the security guards to ask them to do the right thing to protect us locals?

Needless to say, I tried to steer well clear of these potential carriers, hoping my booster shot is doing its job.

Ian Pilsner (Letters, February 1) claims that Jack Waterford always barracks for Labor. He has a convenient memory.

Even a brief survey of Waterford's articles over the years shows that isn't the case. Only three months ago Waterford was saying Labor may well deserve to lose the next election.

Many other articles by Waterford have gotten stuck into Labor policies and personalities, especially Kevin Rudd.

Pilsner may prefer that the LNP be criticism-free, but it is now obvious to all except him that the LNP deserves censure for its mishandling of the COVID crisis and aged care.

The sovereign has served the people of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and many other nations in their constitutional monarchies for 70 years. Quite an accomplishment when you look at the coups, civil wars, bloodshed, and politicians self declared as "President for Life" that surround the "realm".

Given around 150 million people share her majesty as symbolic head of state (with 2 billion across the Commonwealth) and resolve issues through democratic elections. Perhaps this stability should be retained?

Barnaby rings Scomo: "Hi mate [emphasis on "mate"]. Given your current problems, I thought I'd better apologise for the nasty text I sent and offer to resign."

Scomo: "Course I'll accept the apology mate [emphasis on "mate"]. The election is too close, so naturally I'll not accept your resignation."

Barnaby: "That's what I thought you'd say mate [emphasis on "mate"]."

Scomo: "You can also tell the media that because I refused your resignation, you now realise I am really a man of character."

Barnaby: "Er ... OK mate [no emphasis]."

Scomo: "See ya, mate [smirking emphasis on "mate"]."

Barnaby hangs up, muttering to himself: "Bloody liar and hypocrite."

In the West, not everyone agrees that the military pact NATO is necessary, but no one believes in the remotest possibility of a NATO-led invasion of Russia. NATO's raison d'être is simply to protect Europe and the world from a Russian invasion, n'est-ce pas? But the view from Russia is different. Russia was invaded from Europe in the 19th century by France, and in the 20th by Germany. The Great Patriotic War, as World War II is remembered in Russia, is still in living memory.

There is a great fund of distrust that Putin can rely on at home when he insists NATO keep out of Ukraine and stop deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders; demands that are regarded as "impossible" by the West.

It seems natural that Russia should turn to China for reassurance. And so, escalation by escalation, the game goes on.

Watching the livestream of Monday's flagpole protest outside Government House, I was mightily impressed by the way the AFP handled themselves; in complete contrast to the idiots who were trying to provoke them.

Many of the unvaccinated haven't been toilet trained, and are defecating in public parks and urinating against lamp posts. They are refusing to wear masks and fighting with sales staff. They blocked traffic access to the hospice and the airport. Many are wandering around drunkenly boasting of victories over 17-year-old cashiers. Meanwhile, the deceptive speed cameras in the CBD 40km/h zone are clicking busily. A slight consolation for the invasion by angry, uneducated and antisocial barbarians.

Some talk about freedom of speech, but what are these anti-vaxxers demonstrating about? Is it the freedom to potentially kill themselves and others? Is this right?

Fully vaccinated Canberrans are beset by an invasion of cranks, loons, idiots, and worse. What to do? Don't engage or argue with them or (despite the temptation) abuse them. Just point at them and laugh, and laugh and laugh. Laugh them out of town.

By having algorithms which knowingly send people to more extreme sites, are some social media platforms effectively grooming and trolling their own users?

To be fair to Gladys, the unnamed cabinet minister, Barnaby, Mr Macron, Malcolm and Colonel Mustard, who can say that at one time or another they haven't thought Scott Morrison is a "horrible, horrible person", a "complete psycho", a "liar", or a "hypocrite"?

The deputy leader of our federal government pulled out of Sunday's Insiders program. What a wimp.

Advice for Barnaby. My mother left me two gems. Firstly, "Regardless of the temptation, never write it down." Secondly, "A drunk man speaks a sober man's mind."

ScoMo has said that he couldn't care less what people say about him in text messages. Perhaps he should care. That way he would be more likely to be in touch with reality and what people really think about him. His holier-than-thou aloofness is otherwise likely to be his downfall.

So Vikki Campion has called for the unnamed cabinet minister to quit over the leaked text saga. I think the unnamed minister should be promoted. He did very well. We all need to know what our PM is like. As for Mr Barnaby, he offered to resign. I hope he does and soon.

It's remarkable how one man's perception of another can vary so much between being on the backbench and becoming the Deputy PM. It's probably too cynical to suggest the differential in power and salary between the two positions would have any influence in reaching a judgment.