Silliness on the hustings

It seems the battleground electorate of Auckland Central has the most oddly named candidates in the country.

The ACT candidate is Mr Scott Uren. I can only conclude that it must be his party's tough law and order stance that has led to the nickname, the Urenator.

The original Green candidate Richard Green has pulled out. The thought of having to tick "Green, Dick" on the ballot paper would have been extremely challenging.

The United Future candidate Mr Galey-Young's surname is apt for the "Pink Triangle" corner of the busy central electorate.

Perhaps this silliness with names is why Labour's Judith Tizard's website constantly refers to the replacement Green candidate and local councillor Denise Roche as "Denise Roach".

Hardly the way to win coalition partners, I'd have thought. The Tiz must be panicking - not helped by the fact that she's ranked a poorly 38 on Labour's List - about her prospects with National's Nikki Kaye right on her tail. She's taken to distributing press releases on almost every thought entering her head.

She's probably got mum and dad (former Auckland mayor and Governor-General Dame Cath and former cabinet minister Bob) on the phones.