I GATHER that the membership of the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association is shortly to be asked to vote about Anne McIntosh being re-adopted as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the Thirsk and Malton constituency.

What is strange about this ballot is that only the sitting MP can set out her case in a letter accompanying the ballot. The 560 members of the Conservative party might wonder why there is a ballot at all if everything in the garden is as rosy as Miss McIntosh is likely to point out in her address to her party members.

It appears the local Conservative executive committee, with whom you would expect Miss McIntosh to be in perfect harmony, are anything but. They are not allowed by the Party rules to say why.

I ask myself the following questions: Has Miss McIntosh been good at answering my correspondence? Have the answers been helpful? What has Miss McIntosh done in my local area to improve the infrastructure or solve problems? Has Miss McIntosh been a good leader of the grass-roots volunteers?

I will then try to find out why this ballot is being called at all. Then I will cast my vote.

Bridget Guerin, Salton.