Michael Fowler commented at the Mayoral Forum recently that there seemed to be very little interest in the local body elections on our campus. Looking at the candidates, and the nature of City Council politics, it's not hard to imagine why.

The Council itself is an amorphous mass which seems to function in approximately the same way regardless of who sits on it. One notable exception is Michael Fowler who seems to spend most of his time building pies in the sky, and all in the name of atmosphere. The new Town Hall is God s gift to the Wellington people so we are led to believe.

Salient doesn't think so. The atmosphere of the city will not suddenly improve by simply building a great monolith where no-one can see it. It will cost us many millions, and other aspects of funding are dubious to say the least. So far money has come from sources like the South Korean Embassy (remember the current U.S. bribes scandle concerning South Koreans), and also from [unclear: gnjpm] like Adnan Kashoggi from the Middle East.