I FIND it very strange that a government tells us that discrimination by sex, race or religion is wrong and sometimes criminal.

Yet here we have a government that is telling a Bolton constituency that it must have a woman candidate to replace Ruth Kelly.

Surely that is discrimination of the vilest kind because it smacks of a “do as we say, not as we do” attitude.

Apparently, the only criteria laid down is that the applicants must be female. There is no thought for the people of Bolton West who might want a candidate, no matter their sex, who comes from Bolton and knows the real needs of Boltonians, not some import thrust upon the Bolton people by the Labour Party Executive.

J D O'Connor Redcar Road Little Lever