Why don’t they buy it?

Stuff reports:

Several thousand people have gathered in Christchurch this afternoon to protest the demolition of the city’s Anglican cathedral.

The protest rally began in Cranmer Square and saw past and present civic leaders, MPs and other high profile Christchurch residents calling on the Anglican Church to immediately halt demolition work on the quake-damaged Cathedral.

The rally came on the day an opinion poll showed the fate of the Anglican cathedral has divided the region, with 54 per cent of those polled favouring demolition and 42 per cent calling for it to be saved.

Former MP Jim Anderton told the crowd that 100 engineers had confirmed the Cathedral could be saved and restoration should go ahead regardless of the cost. If the city could afford to spend money on a new rugby stadium it could afford to restore the city’s most iconic building.

Jim must have missed a key word. It is a “new” stadium. That is very different to trying to restore a building that is dangerous and unsafe. But hey, if Jim has some engineers who think it is fine, I’m all for sending Jim in with a hard hat.

But Jim doesn’t just want to risk other people’s lives restoring the cathedral, he also says that it must be restored regardless of the cost.

Well if each of the 5,000 people who marched contribute $20,000 each they can buy the Cathedral and do what they want with it.

I presume Saint Jim has set up a trust fund which he has made a large donation to, encouraging others to do the same, to pay for the Cathedral’s restoration. I mean, surely he isn’t saying he just wants other people to pay for it, and not him.