RICHARD BRIDGE asks for a better mechanism for the selection of women MPs in Parliament (Letters, March 23).

The best mechanism is democracy, Mr. Bridge.

I welcome women MPs, provided they are the best person to represent their constituents, not the system championed by Harriet Harman which selects all-women short lists for safe Labour seats, irrespective of the ability of these women to do the job. That is until her husband, Jack Dromey, was put on an open short list in the Birmingham Erdington constituency and subsequently selected as the Parliamentary candidate, and is now an MP.

So Mr Bridge, the lack of female representation at Birmingham Erdington was because Jack Dromey was married to Harriet Harman, whose principles seemed to disappear when she thought her husband could become a Labour MP.

Keith Thornton, De Grey Place, Bishopthorpe, York.