However, the same frontrunners would still be elected and the only difference would be the relative positioning of lesser known or favoured candidates. There is no guarantee the town would be better served and every likelihood less suitable persons could sneak on the council.
Even a blind man can see Mr Baron wants to sit on the district council, but it remains to be seen whether he can maintain this attempted influencing of the masses through until the local body elections in 2019.
My guess is most perceptive people will get sick and tired of hearing about him.
However, he may have a future as a professional bridge player if he plays his cards right.
Abridged
D PARTNER, Eastown
Trauma ongoing
Tsk, Tsk, there you go again Chester, denegrating Tracey Treadwell's name in an attempt to laugh that you drove your car into two senior citizens.
Most decent folk would recognise the arrogance in thinking your actions funny. At the time, and after the trial, many were extremely angry because of the incident and your attitude.
The fact two of us were injured seems to have escaped you despite it having been mentioned many times.
Not one word of regret for the damage and ongoing trauma you inflicted on us has ever passed your lips. Is that the measure of the man?
DENISE LOCKETT, Whanganui
Alternative facts
"A strong economy, more jobs, support for families and healthy communities," the National billboard informs us.
Does it refer to the past, the present or the future? On reflection, it does seem to have much in common with one of Mr Trump's alternative facts.
We have a National economy which actively supports the reckless overstocking of dairy farms, resulting in long-term ruination of land and pollution of rivers.
We have an economy which encourages mining in conservation areas and anywhere else overseas mining companies fancy to explore. Mining is an activity where profits go offshore, local jobs are minimal and mining companies refuse to clear up the environmental mess they leave behind.
We have an economy based on large numbers of underpaid and exploited foreign labour. While tourists may be an economic bonanza there is no government policy to consider the long term effects of unlimited access to popular sites.
We have a National economic policy which allows open-slather immigration without discussion about the impact this policy has on an existing housing crisis or on already underfunded education and health services.
To this list of Steven Joyce's rock-star trickle-down economics can be added an excess of unregulated tertiary education institutes of dubious quality, aimed at unwitting foreign students.
"More jobs," says the billboard. The greatest growth in employment has been in low paid, dead-end unrewarding jobs. So far, there is no real commitment to retraining the thousands of young unemployed.
There continues to be insufficient funding for innovative high tech, research and development, which is where future economic growth will happen.
"Support for families and healthy communities" - who knows what National's notion of that might be. The ability to own your own home without a till-death-mortgage might be a good place to start.
So, after nine years in government, we must conclude that National's billboard statement is most definitely not the reality for many thousands of New Zealanders and their families.
J A LAMONT, Durie Hill
Abortion issue
How can anyone support a candidate of any party who supports the destruction of a child in the womb when they themselves have spent 40 weeks safely in their mother's womb?
How can one vote for anyone who supports abortion - either the Labour Party, which has it as a party policy, or the Greens who are noticeably silent on the matter?
No way can a civilisation be built on such sentiments.
F HALPIN, Whanganui
