Right, panic over, democracy wins. Philip Arps is not going to be on the school board in my old hood of Linwood in Christchurch.

Hopefully for all those getting exercised about the fringe players in the upcoming local bodies can sit back a bit and realise democracy, by and large, works.

Not perfectly, and not to our satisfaction a lot of the time, but it’s a hell of a lot better than most of the alternatives.

The danger these days is we don’t seem to like democracy anymore. In America the right thinks the election was stolen. They don’t trust voting or voters.

In a place like New Zealand the left get all upset when they see someone who is a bit weird on Facebook. The campaigns that have been launched here are the height of arrogance. They smack of "we know best."

They say "Of course we like democracy, vote for any one you like. Unless, of course, it's one of those people we've decided you shouldn’t vote for.”

Yes, some are nutters. But unless they break the law and spend a certain amount of time in prison, the beauty of democracy is the freedom to participate, or not participate, to have your say, or not have your say.

Was Philip Arps allowed to have a crack? Yes, he was. Did you want him running a school? No.

The Government started looking at a character test once they worked out no rules in the Arps case had been broken. The rules being two years or more in jail, Arps had done 21 months.

So, what's a character test? Whose character are you testing and why? And who are you to say what you judge to be good character is right?

Anyway, when left to the process of democracy, Arps stood, made his pitch, and the people voted. He came last and got about two percent of the vote.

He's not on the board, so crisis averted. So how about a bit of faith in the old process? And let's get on with life and stop making a career out of panicking.