IT is good to hear that Peter Donnelly, and indeed Graham Cliff, (Letters & opinion Gazette & Herald, February 26) both received a reply from our MP when they wrote to her.

I sincerely hope she was actually able to help them address their issues. As a result of gaining such a reply, it seems, they seem to hold her in higher regard than do the majority of the local party. I have to say that had she replied so diligentlysay that had she replied so diligently to all the letters she received, she may have been held in better regard by more of her constituents, and indeed the members who have now voted to remove her. Or maybe not. It’s interesting to see that Mr Donnelly, at the time of writing his letter at least, believed that she was about to stand as an Independent.

That was widely believed at the time, but she has since denied that. Perhaps because it would mean that she would have to resign the Tory whip, and therefore her Westminster appointments, as soon as she makes such an intention clear - if she eventually chooses that route.

But she has not done so - yet.

Having failed to find a reason to overturn the democratic members’ vote on appeal, she has now appeared on TV saying that she wants to present her case to the constituency in an “open primary”.

I think it is the local party who would have to ask for that, not her, and well, what are the odds there?

In fact, this is not the only bizarre element of that television interview - Ms McIntosh also claimed that she “had not been allowed to put her case” (to the voting party members, I suppose). But the ballot papers were accompanied by a letter from her, which, erm, put her case. And then she claimed that the vote to remove her was “undemocratic”, even though it was just as democratic a procedure as the one that selected her - arguably more so, in fact - and she professed herself “very happy” to submit to the procedure before the vote.

I said in my earlier letter that this was like a Greek tragedy. It’s now turning into a farce, and it’s more than time that she accepted the verdict of due process.

David Hoggard, Malton

 

• I READ Victor Buchanan’s letter in last week’s Gazette & Herald expecting to find in the final paragraph that Canonisation for the current chairman of Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association was a forgone conclusion, not so apparently.

Is sainthood likely for Mr Steveneny? Perhaps we could look briefly at his work as chairman of the association? Since his appointment a number of things have happened: For two-and-a-half years the association operated without rules; the association’s constitution, only adopted in September 2013, has been broken a number of times; the association has seen the largest fall in membership in its history; the membership is now divided into two warring halves and financial control, or rather lack of it, will ultimately see the sale of the association’s office being the only logical way out of debt. Now you may think that I blame the chairman, but it would, I think, be impossible for one person to wreak as much havoc.

Chris Parkin, Extra-ordinary member Helmsley branch, Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association

 

• IN reply to Sue Cowan’s letter in last week’s Gazette & Herald, I’m delighted to see that she is standing up for the underdog, in this case our de-selected MP, as I am sure that every good mayor should.

I was even more delighted to hear that she had asked that same MP to help with the issue of the disappearing Pickering town bus service, but my delight soon evaporated.

Sue is obviously pleased that Miss McIntosh had raised the matter of bus funding in Parliament, but I can only assume that she did not hear what was actually said. Our MP was a lone voice asking for the abandonment of the English National Concession Scheme, and its replacement by a scheme similar to the Senior Railcard. If she had got her way, this would have seen people on a state pension, who’ve worked all their lives for that pass, having to pay £30 a year for the privilege of getting a third off bus fare.

A trip to York and back would cost a pensioner nearly £10. I don’t think that’s very fair, and I wouldn’t have thought our mayor would either. I doubt this is what any bus pass user had in mind when they said that they wouldn’t mind paying a small contribution to keep services. “Be careful what you wish for” springs to mind”.

Eden Blyth, Wrelton, Pickering