The voters of Bracknell will soon get the chance to select their next MP.

The Conservative Party in Bracknell is to hold an “Open Primary” similar to the one recently held in Totnes.

It is thought that Primaries force parties to choose candidates with a broader appeal. If there has been non-party member involvement in the process, voters may feel more inclined to support the winner at the general election. Daniel Hannan, who admits to being somewhat of a bore where Open Primaries are concerned, says “Elected representatives are seen, not as local champions, but as members of a separate caste. Voters regard their MPs as spokesmen for their parties in the constituency rather than the other way around. How better to address this disenchantment than by allowing everyone in the constituency a say in whom the parties should nominate?”

I rather like a lot of Daniel Hannan’s stuff, but we had better not talk about the NHS just now. Let’s just say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion no matter what party they belong to.

There has been a lot of speculation in the local press about who will apply to take on the position, and who might get selected. Now that the date for applications is past I suspect that there will be a lot of hard work going on with people reading though hundreds of CV’s. The interesting bit will be who actually makes it though to the primary stage. With the great public interest shown in the selection it will probably be very hard to select from the remaining candidates.

The Bracknell Conservative Association will whittle down the number of applications to produce a shortlist of six, who will attend a weekend selection event in mid-October. The entire Bracknell Constituency electorate will then be able to apply for places at an event and a final candidate will be selected by them.

I am sure that we will get much confusion over who is in a Bracknell Constituency voter and who is a Bracknell Forest Council voter, especially as the boundaries have changed, and the northern parishes have moved to Windsor.

Polling District and location name	Current Parliamentary Constituency	Parliamentary constituency at the next General Election
BA - Binfield	Bracknell	Windsor
BB - Farley Wood	Bracknell	Windsor
WG - Whitegrove	Bracknell	Windsor
WM - St Michael’s	Bracknell	Windsor
WN - Warfield Park North	Bracknell	Windsor
WP - Warfield Park	Bracknell	Windsor
WQ - Quelm	Bracknell	Windsor
WV - Martins Heron and Warren	Windsor	Bracknell
WW - Forest Park	Windsor	Bracknell

Perhaps something to liven up dull autumn/winter days?