The infamous list - cue evil laugh :-)

Rob Stockley for Carterton District Council

There's a long discussion running about a BBQ, a list and potential factions within the candidates standing for CDC. I am a candidate. I have seen the list. I am on the list. I can burn sausages with the best of them. So I feel qualified to comment.

The List - is simply the list of candidates taken from the CDC website including their nominators. Where candidates share the same nominator they have been grouped and given a colour. This is a very crude analysis which essentially means we know each other, possibly through someone else. For example I am highlighted blue with Ruth Carter because Anna-Marie Kingsley was one of our nominators. I've met with Ruth once or twice. I wouldn't say that I know Ruth but I know who she is and respect her contribution to Carterton. I expect she would say the same of me. We certainly haven't had any secret meetings. We're not aligned.

For whatever reason Russell and Carolyn Keys agreed to be nominators for a number of candidates. Some of those candidates went on to nominate others. So in the crude analysis you end up with a sizeable number in the same colour group. Are they aligned? I don't think so. Were they all invited to the BBQ? I know they weren't. Would some of them make good councillors? Absolutely.

The analysis also identifies the RATH group. We know they are aligned because they told us so. Is that a bad thing? No. Candidates are free to associate with, and campaign with whomever they like. If you don't like their choice of friends then don't vote for them.

We know that the list doesn't identify who went to the BBQ. Being in the same group doesn't mean two candidates are aligned. Being in different groups doesn't mean two candidates are not aligned. The list is nothing more than a doodle and tells us very little.

As for the BBQ, I think it was a brave move this early in Spring and I hope the wind didn't affect the cooking of the sausages.