Have the young fogies taken over the ACT Young Liberals'?

I thought for a moment I was being conned by a joke such as the famous story about the spaghetti crop in Italy failing and Italy being in a dire predicament as a result.

The ACT Young Liberals will consider adopting a policy in favour of offering tax cuts to families flying the Australian flag outside their homes in an effort to encourage patriotism. If ever there was a Trumpian thought bubble that's it. Will I get an extra tax cut if I wear a blue singlet, drive a Holden and eat pies?

They want a pledge of allegiance that would be mandatory for all students to recite each day. That was done in the '50s and '60s. We were forced to say "I honour my God; I serve my Queen; I salute my flag". How is that relevant to 2024?

I pity teachers trying to enforce that. They want a "patriotism package". They want to cut immigration to zero after five years apart from people critical to Australia's economy.

It appears the Young Liberals recruit "young fogies". They are completely out of touch with the Australia of 2024. Are their morning teas limited to Iced Vo Vos, ginger snaps and Bushell's Tea?

Flag flying is faux patriotism. Contributing to your community is patriotism. We don't have to mimic America.

As a mid-level octogenarian I have always been somewhat sceptical of computers. The recent CrowdStrike catastrophic software breakdown proves my scepticism in spades.

Blue recovery screens lit up worldwide, creating chaos in the banking, transport, and supermarket and retail sectors.

I still believe that cash is king. Businesses and government agencies that refuse to accept cash are making a bad mistake.

We currently have the ridiculous situation where, while cash is a legal tender, the Albanese government allows businesses and even some of its own departments to refuse cash payments if a sign to that effect is prominently displayed.

Fred Pilcher denies anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic (Letters, July 21). For the very large majority of Jews, Zionism is an integral part of their Judaism and identity.

Pilcher should be careful in making generalisations about Zionists. Zionists can be religious or secular, left wing or right wing, moderate or extremist.

Would Pilcher tolerate all Australians being condemned because some espouse extremist views?

Denying Jews the right to a homeland while claiming it for everyone else is clearly anti-Semitic. It is just as anti-Semitic as denying any other right to Jews and Jews alone.

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their homeland, where significant numbers of Jews have lived for thousands of years, predating Islam and Christianity.

Modern Zionism arose in the nineteenth century as a direct result of centuries of anti-Semitism and the most horrible pogroms directed against Jews.

There could have been peace in the region if the existence of a small Jewish state was accepted in 1947 and after. Israel has offered to accept a neighbouring Palestinian state many times, but these offers have not been reciprocated.

The horrible massacres on October 7 and the anti-Semitic indoctrination deeply embedded in the Palestinian education system clearly demonstrate that Israel's enemies have no intention of making peace.

When James VI of Scotland became king also of England, he became James I in that realm. Surely therefore we should greet King Charles when he visits as Charles I of Australia, not Charles III. Neither the unfortunate Charles I nor the Merry Monarch, Charles II, were kings of Australia.

This being the case, and given all other constitutional links with the UK have long been severed, would it not be fitting for Charles to undergo a second coronation as he assumes the Australian throne, just as James I was crowned for the second time, in England, on July 25, 1603.

Perhaps even fellow republicans could agree that a modest and appropriate coronation ceremony with a leading role for the Indigenous community would be an appropriate step in the path to reconciliation.

Will the significant rubbish on the sides of Parkes Way be cleaned up before the ACT election in October?

It has looked like an unmanaged dump site for well over a year now and another stark reminder of the ACT government's failure to provide adequate City Services across Canberra.

Perhaps we should organise a voluntary working bee of a dozen or so cars and trailers to clean it up and do the government's job for it.

Installation of a few cameras across these frequently used roads and subsequent fines for the culprits would act as a significant deterrent. The government's long time neglect of our suburbs over many years is sadly there for all to see.

This is despite large increases in our rates and land taxes over the same period. Now it seems that same neglect has spread to our large arterial roads.

Weeds, rubbish, graffiti abound. Yet another consequence of a government obsessed with big ticket items ahead of good day-to-day management of our once beautiful city.

No wonder so many Labor/Greens voters have become disillusioned. Our capital deserves so much better than this.

Canberrans often bemoan the litter disfiguring our city. The bike paths and wetlands in Dickson are full of it. This is partly because so many people just don't care, but others would surely do the right thing if bins were available.

It would be easy to complain that ACT government should install more bins - but we know they won't, partly because of the cost of emptying them.

But what if the government provided wheelie bins that members of the community undertook to collect from paths and parks and put out with their own bins on collection days?

I'd cheerfully volunteer to collect a bin on the nearby bike path if it reduced the amount of litter. Worth trying? What would it cost? Just some wheelie bins marked "bin it together".

Leon Arundell (Letters, July 22) provides an excellent example of how statistics can be used to slant any argument by comparing the number of senators per head of population in the ACT with the Australia-wide average.

Anyone with an ounce of understanding of the Senate would know that senators represent states, not the nation as a whole. It's therefore totally disingenuous to use a national average as a point of comparison to demonstrate why the ACT shouldn't have more senators.

To be more accurate in making his comparison Arundell should have mentioned that each state has 12 senators, regardless of population. The average for NSW's 12 senators is just over 680,000 whereas Tasmania has a senator for just under every 50,000 people. Both are considerably different to the ACT's 235,000 people per senator.

When looked at in this way, Arundell's argument that there's no case for more senators for the ACT doesn't hold up.

I welcome the publication of Asthma Australia's open letter setting the record straight regarding wood heaters and correcting disinformation published by industry lobbyists that seek to protect profits at the expense of public health and the environment (Saturday, July 20).

Now that the facts have been made clear, I hope that The Canberra Times will cease to publish wood heater industry adverts that mislead readers and endanger their health.

To the "ageing" Peter McDonald, of Hughes, (Letters, July 22) I am impressed that he still remembers the artists of his youth such as Dame Nellie Melba, the Sex Pistols and Nana Mouskouri.

I was not aware that anyone who expresses an opinion about pop singer Taylor Swift would automatically have to be "male", "old" and "grumpy". Are there any "grumpy old women" out there who also have the same opinion about Taylor Swift?

While I voiced my opinion about Taylor Swift, I could well have voiced my opinion about other female pop singers that I admire greatly such as Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Paloma Faith, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga. Has Mr Hughes even heard of them?

President Biden has finally come to his senses and withdrawn as the Democrat nominee. Trump must be spitting chips as "poor old Joe", his "trump card", has been taken away from him. He must be wondering what to do next.

If God saved Trump, who will he choose to replace Biden? Can we expect a text message from X Almighty letting Americans know the creator's preference for president? It would save a lot of time, money, effort - and angst. It might also create a resurgence of belief in God.

JD Vance has already displayed a Trumpian familiarity with world affairs by opining the UK will become the first Islamist nation with a nuclear bomb. Our AUKUS partners must be scratching their heads, along with Pakistan. Is Vance basing his UK diplomacy on advice from Nigel Farage?

Trump is fond of labelling President Joe Biden as "crooked" Joe Biden. But who is a convicted felon? And, who is facing other criminal and civil cases in court? So who is the real crook?

Albanese said "President Biden has been a great friend of Australia" and had brought "Australia and the US closer together, including through AUKUS". I don't consider AUKUS proof of friendship. It's the exploitation of a weaker nation.

JD Vance was right about Trump the first time. Vance is an eloquent and attractive candidate, but in agreeing to be Trump's running mate, has he compromised his own integrity? Or will he help to minimise Trump's damage?

The elevation of JD Vance to Trump's running mate suggests to me that Trump is clearly a student of Sun Tzu and The Godfather: "keep your friends close and your enemies closer".

Whilst this left-leaning reader feels that the current Labor/Greens ACT government is well past its use-by date, reading that the ACT Young Liberals want to introduce tax cuts for those flying Australian flags means I have resigned myself for four more years of the current set of clowns.

It's nice to know that the ACT Young Liberals have their priorities well and truly hoisted to the top of the flagpole by suggesting a tax break to push patriotism by flying the flag. We are not the USA. Patriotism is more than a fluttering flag in your front yard.

Why aren't telecommunication and privacy regulators doing anything about those randomly generated calls we all get about solar or our electricity provider? And from political staffers, or recorded messages from pollies? It's intrusive.

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Responsibility for election comment is taken by John-Paul Moloney of 121 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra. Published by Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty Ltd.