Letter: Democratic contest

Sir: Michael Ancram is deluded to think that the Tories have "the most open and democratic" selection process for candidates of any political party ("Tory rivals for mayor named", 23 July).

The Tories will be whittling their list of eight men down to just two for members to choose from. In contrast, every Liberal Democrat member in London is voting in an-all member postal ballot to choose our mayoral candidate from a list of four contenders representing a cross-section of London - black, white, male, female, gay and straight.

Cutting the choice available to Conservative members to just two is not my idea of democracy, and not even having one woman in their list of eight is a sad testimony to the state of the Tories.

DUNCAN BORROWMAN

Chislehurst, Kent