WE’VE just had the Conservative Party flyer introducing Kevin Hollinrake as the new parliamentary candidate for the Thirsk and Malton constituency.

That means, with the Conservative majority locally being so strong, that he will probably be our new MP from May.

He’s probably a lovely man. He’s obviously done well in business. But he appears to have no political experience at all (even at local government level), and appears to be taking up politics pretty much as a retirement hobby. His headline policy is about Luton Airport. What?

In what possible world is this a good swap for our current MP Anne McIntosh? I don’t know her, but she is an experienced politician, chairman of the powerful Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, deeply committed to policy areas highly relevant to our constituency, such as agriculture, and plainly an influential voice on our behalf in the corridors of power.

I don’t get it. I never did get it. But now that I’ve seen the qualifications of the new Conservative candidate, I really, really don’t get it.

Dick Jennings, Malton