Readers are invited to submit letters for publication under these guidelines.

OPINION: Should Wellington be quite so complacent about keeping hold of the NZI Sevens?

OPINION: What a bittersweet experience, to attend the Wellington sevens. As first-timers to the event, my husband and I were quickly swept away by everything about it - the celebratory mood, the great rugby, and the sheer exuberance of the crowd.

OPINION: I read with interest about a troubled youth programme (Feb 3) that, far from being an outstanding success, has also been very costly, with estimates ranging from $171,000 to $630,000 per "graduate". A comparison was made with the cost of keeping an offender in jail ($100,000 annually).

OPINION: The early 20th-century Spanish philosopher George Santayana observed that those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

OPINION: I am a parent of two primary-aged children and am also a trained secondary school teacher. I am thoroughly happy with the local school my children attend. At any time I can find out how my children are progressing in terms of numeracy and literacy for their age groups, as can parents at any school, and I believe that national standards will add nothing to this.

OPINION: The trend towards stomach stapling is a mystery to me.

OPINION: You report ("Call the council, not the neighbours", Feb 2) the statistics on complaints by neighbours made to city councils. Perhaps we have become a generally more complaining society - Kiwis were always good at speaking up when needed - but the media now reports many more complainants.

OPINION: New broom Steven Joyce has been rewarded. This has happened after his ruthless behaviour to the people of the Kapiti Coast, where he wants to push a 100-metre-wide expressway through quiet communities against their and their council's wishes.

OPINION: Don Brash's 2025 Task Force report is the message National doesn't want to hear but that's no reason to shoot the messenger.

OPINION: I find the editorial "Hands off the jewel in Wellington's crown" somewhat ironic seeing Wellington chose to remove the jewel in Nelson's crown when the capital removed the World of WearableArt from its origins in Nelson a few years ago. The writer goes so far as to claim that "along with the World of WearableArt . . . the Wellington Sevens is one of the jewels in the capital's crown". Such a wonderfully one-eyed view.

OPINION: John Key says that two-thirds of schools and 30 per cent of teachers need to pull their socks up.

OPINION: I read with dismay that Wellington City Council has, in its wisdom, decided to "shut up shop" for the Wellington Community Network by removing funding for this service (Feb 3). I also read that this service has been used by 570 community groups, so I do trust that all elected members of the council have been consulted on this and all are in agreement to stop the funding.

OPINION: I take exception to Richard Long's poor understanding of the educational process and blind support for national standards (Feb 2).

OPINION: In his statement about the "misinformation" put out by teacher unions, the prime minister makes three claims about what the Education Review Office found in its report on reading and writing in years 1 and 2 (Time to step up, Key tells teachers, Feb 3).

OPINION: It is awful Frank van Kampen was killed by a drunk driver. His baby daughter and partner must be suffering the worst hell but, being the daughter of an alcoholic, I must say that expecting a drunk driver's family to raise her children is unfair. My dad used to come home with signposts on the front of his car on a Thursday night after getting fish and chips. Who knows who he could have killed or hurt in the years he was driving. Luckily, he was never in that position and somehow made it, hurting only himself.

OPINION: The minimum charge in the Alison Downer case was unbelievable; the inadequate sentencing is unbelievable. Even more unbelievable, however, is the statement by her lawyer, Sandy Baigent, that there was a lack of multiple victims, meaning a more lenient jail sentence was appropriate. She quite obviously has no insight or empathy regarding the enormous suffering, both emotional and economic, being shouldered by Frank van Kampen's widow and children.

OPINION: Sentencing Alison Downer to jail was appropriate but insufficient time, given that it was her fourth conviction.

OPINION: The tragic loss of a teacher and head of a young family in the Alison Downer case calls for more action.

OPINION: I read with amusement Vincent Ward's (Letters, Feb 4) objections to being called the "archaic" term Pakeha.