Alexander (Sandy) Milne

Following advice from my closest friends, I have decided to not stand as councillor in the October local body elections.

They do not doubt my cognitive function or physical fitness.   (Nor do I).
But they all ask if it would be wise of me to spend most of my remaining years in a council environment.

On deeper reflection, I do not.  (Been there, done that in the health field and still at it).

In similar vein, I retract the following from my Beacon letter of July 25.

I wrote that Mayor Victor Luca had invited me to join him and other Grey Power members to a meeting with Health Minister Simeon Brown in Auckland on August 7.

I have pulled out of that following, amongst other things, Mr Brown's attack on 35,000 nurses and their union for ".... putting politics ahead of patients", with regard to their strike on Wednesday.

That was another puerile and provocative comment from a 34-year-old health minister who lacks the education, background, maturity and skills necessary for such an important government portfolio.  

If his party had "put spending for nurses ahead of huge handouts for rental property owners", nurses would not have needed to strike.

It would be too challenging a task for me to sit with Mr Brown for half an hour without giving him an earful.