HEAVENS above. I thought I had missed the General Election. According to David Hoggard, Anne McIntosh was dismissed by her constituents.

What rubbish. Our MP was ousted by a well-organised coup, who apparently had a plan to shoehorn someone else in, but that plan came spectacularly off the rails, much to the ire of certain people.

The new selection was a bit of a farce. We had to travel out of our own constituency and to York Racecourse – what was wrong with the Milton Rooms?

A lot of elderly association members were literally frozen out of the voting.

Why did members from Filey and the local dales have to have such a long journey, and to their credit a lot did make the journey? We are supposed to have 550 members, but I suspect there were less than 200 present at the vote.

No numbers were given after each vote, so we don’t know whether Kevin Hollinrake won easily or by a couple of votes. So much for the trumpeted age of transparency.

Kevin Hollinrake might be a good local businessman and gentleman and this was none of his doing, but we have lost members. I know several people who have not renewed their membership. I wish I had a pound for every Conservative voter who has told me they were appalled at Anne McIntosh’s treatment, and I speak as a member of about 35 years.

Stephen T Stonehouse, Brawby