Central government has taken a fair amount of stick over the loss of services and jobs in struggling provinces such as Wanganui - and rightly so.

It is only six weeks until Christmas Day and the pressure on many of our families to spend money they do not have has started to build already.

Picton-based Sounds Air looks set to take over the Wanganui-Wellington air route which deputy Anna Wallis has crossed her fingers to happen.

Black American activist Malcolm X said in a comment on the worth of democracy: "You can either have the ballot or the bullet."

When those two blowhards John Tamihere and Willie Jackson weighed in on the Roast Busters, they might have anticipated a little angry denunciation at their typical antics, but I doubt they expected this call for their heads.

This week Kate Stewart is Thinking Out Loud about the nation's political circus, particularly the re-appearance of Labour's lady quota.

Kelly Makiha provides Another View on the tradition of fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day.

Terry Sarten looks at how Wanganui can learn from the experience of the historic German town of Villingen in this week's Tel's Tales.

Nicola Young takes a look at the daily commute in this week's edition of The Glass Half Full.

The curse of Mars also applies to Asian countries.

This week in Whanganui concerned residents attended a meeting on synthetic cannabis and legal highs and students in Palmerston North protested against the sale of legal highs.