Perth Voice Interactive

Keen on the right name
SEEMING to be in chit-chat with Stirling’s top brass and the Mount Lawley MP Michael Sutherland is “Stuart Keenan MP…” (page 2; Camera frenzy caption, May 18, 2013).
Mr Keenan has previously evaded my radar, as the saying goes. My chattering friends wonder how often he’s mistaken for Mt Lawley’s dapper and frisky estate agent, Stuart Irving?
Eileen Richmond
Park Rd, Mount Lawley
The Ed says: Apologies to both Mr Stuart Irving (the dapper fellow in the photo) and to Mr MICHAEL Keenan the federal Stirling MP who was not in the photo. Sigh. We blame the beer.

Making sense
IT is several years ago, even seven, since then-Perth city councillor Lisa Scaffidi stated in the Voice some radical views on local government.
In response, my first letter to the Voice: I wrote to the effect Ms Scaffidi had more sense in a single hair of her head than the entire bunch of WA veteran councillors.
Today the same sentiment endures and probably holds true regarding the now Lord Mayor of Perth, Ms Scaffidi, and our entire bunch of WA politicians.
In recognising this it was probably an adviser to the Barnett government who’d suggested the Lord Mayor should be approached to join a delegation expected to attend a European energy conference over four days in Scotland come September—its focus being offshore Europe: the next 50 years (Voice, May 4, 2013).
From a pragmatic WA perspective, a demanding week-long trip.
Such an invitation most likely included all expenses (estimated $15,000) paid. How could it not? And there’s the rub. Ms Scaffidi’s conscience, I believe, would make it impossible for her to appear to be in the pocket of the ruling Liberal party.
The lord mayor, also president of the World Energy Cities, will join the delegation only with a majority of City of Perth councillors being agreed upon the expense
These councillors, in turn, are obliged to consider the trip in terms of what is best for our capital city’s ratepayers, and WA.
Let me save Ms Scaffidi repeating for the umpteenth time that Perth’s civic leader and first woman lord mayor is not interested in state or federal politics. This despite a time when she was generally considered more popular than a former state Labor leader, Eric Ripper, and the same can probably be said of its current leader, Mark McGowan.
Yet Ms Scaffidi has never even been affiliated to a political party. Family apart, her first love is, and always has been, the city of her birth. By now there can be few who doubt this—even her faceless critics who fear any change to the city even in the name of improvement.
Over almost six years her incredible energy has been a major factor in the city’s rejuvenation and transformation.
Given her arrival in Scotland, the runner-up in the world mayor contest for 2013 would most probably have a quicker and more comprehensive grasp than any of her fellow WA delegates of what  might go on there. The other delegates most likely fighting jet-lag, a temporary affliction to which the frequently-flying long-distance lord mayor seems immune.
My best regards to all involved at the Perth Voice, and a gentle reminder the lord mayor never knows anything of what I write until the honourable lady sees it published.
Ron Willis
First Ave, Mt Lawley

Neigh, I say
I FOUND the heading “Dressage for discipline” (Voice Mail, May 18, 2013) peculiar.
Dressage is a word of French origin meaning the method of training a horse, not disciplining MPs in parliament. Mr Benskin complains about the sombre black gown of the Speaker in his letter. MPs may object to comparing them to horses.
G Vajda
Lincoln St, Highgate
The Ed says: We’ve often heard MPs compared to the nether regions of a horse. But point taken.

Improvements
IF Stuart Lofthouse or Debbie Saunder care to run for council in the ward where I live they have mine and the neighbour’s votes (Voice, June 8, 2013).
They would have to be an improvement on the present, who don’t bother to reply to letters. And definitely not listening when it comes to six units to one block. Or greed for six rates to one, and Alannah what’s this volunteer nonsense? You get paid plus the perk, and, like parliament, there is never a vacancy.
Robert Hart
Anderson St, Mt Hawthorn

Such f’n!
WHAT an intriguing abbreviation for “fun” allotted to the heading of Cameron Poustie’s letter, “Who writes these f’n letters?” (Voice Mail, June 8, 2013).
I’m baffled by Cameron having doubts about anyone “in the world” being called T Greta Gatsby, even though with a magnifying glass I’m unable to find one in the Perth phone directory. Yet Gatsbys surely abide elsewhere. And outside F Scott Fitzgerald’s head and novel, what’s wrong with being called Gatsby—even T Greta? T could be for Teresa, Thomasina, Tamsin, Tulip etc—where’s the problem?
While topical, Gatsby can also become a fascinating acronym: “Gazing at the stars beside Yagan” brings him nearer Perth.
Amy Pageter
Mounts Bay Rd, Crawley