DEAR EDITOR - What a cynical and ill informed letter from Mr Padmore about the opinion survey the Bromsgrove Conservative Party is carrying out.

Julie Kirkbride was indeed re-elected last year, with a substantial increase in majority and one of the highest turnouts in the country. This result recognises the electorate's satisfaction with Julie's performance as their MP and suggests many people, who would normally support other parties, voted for her. To say they were gullible is extremely insulting.

The purpose of the survey is to give the electorate the opportunity to express to Julie their concerns on local and national issues. With a Labour Government whose interest in democracy is minimal, Julie is limited in what she can deliver. With our lives increasingly ruled from Westminster, she cannot guarantee better funding for Bromsgrove schools, she cannot provide better health care services, she cannot increase the number of policemen on the beat.

What she can and does do, is bring these problems to the notice of the Government and try to alleviate the hardship and suffering these problems create. The results of the survey are already allowing her to be even more effective as Bromsgrove's MP.

The money for the survey has not come from Julie, it is not the taxpayers money - it is from local members of the Conservative party. It is to allow people to have their say.

With democracy under threat, I can think of no more beneficial cause, though I doubt Mr Padmore would agree.

Peter Jarrett,

Chairman - Bromsgrove Conservative

Association,

Alvechurch Highway,

Bromsgrove.