What, dear sir, does the VP NCC elections have to do with Brexit? The Party board doesn’t set government policy.

I don’t know how Ms Iles voted in the referendum - and it doesn’t matter. I’m a Brexiteer and would support her - if I had a vote - whether she was a Brexiteer or Remainer. I hope the Conservative Party still welcomes a broad church of beliefs and opinions.

If you want to expunge the Party of all Remainers then I would respectively suggest another party that might be more relevant to you.

John, if you call this pyramid democracy then so is every election for the speaker of the house, and every chair of every parliamentary committee. We don't vote for who we want to be speaker or committee chairs, they are voted in by people we vote for. You have to put your trust in people you vote for at some point, otherwise we'd be bombarded with elections every day.

Labour allow all members to be nominated and to vote - and look at the problems with entryists on the NEC. We can't allow that to happen in the Party, hence the widely used voting by an electoral college.

NCC members are voted in by members and should know about how the Party runs; what needs to change; and know some, if not most, of the candidates standing, so will be in a better position to make an informed choice.

These are voluntary/unpaid positions, so to hold UK-wide hustings so that members could hear from the candidates would be prohibitive, not only for the candidates' time but the cost to both the candidates and the Party every year.

I will admit that the NCC itself is not widely known about within the grassroots, so an NCC website and social media would help get the word out so that they could engage more with members.