THE Conservatives have selected their man to contest the Richmond seat – the safest in the country – at the next general election.

They have chosen the local candidate – local, that is, if you live in West London. Few people have heard of him before. He's not so much been parachuted in as smuggled into the county in the back of a rusty Toyota Hilux.

Fortunately, Rishi Sunak, a 34-year-old former Oxford University graduate who co-founded a £1bn global investment firm, has been speaking to lots of people over the last month so is fully up-to-speed on the issues.

It's easy to be sniffy about his apparent lack of knowledge or much in common with the constituency, but you've got to think of the bigger picture.

He's obviously a bright chap and is married to the daughter of the founder of massive multinational technology firm Infosys.

These are exactly the kind of companies the district council is hoping to attract to the Dales to stop the place becoming a giant sheltered housing complex. Infosys has 72 bases around the world – another which utilises the excellent internet service in Healaugh is barely going to be noticed at the head office in Bangalore.

Board meetings could be held over a cream tea at the Copper Kettle in Reeth and for adventurous team-building exercises, staff could be dropped off in Middlesbrough dressed in designer suits and told to find their way home before nightfall.

I went to Bangalore once and, like Swaledale, it was quite an uplifting place, although more open sewers and women in saris riding motorbikes.

As well as looking a little bit like Ross from Friends, his official website reveals that Rishi collects Coca Cola memorabilia, so he must be personable as well as clever.

Closer to home, the youngest boy has shown that his appetite for after-school clubs and activities knows no bounds.

Football, rugby, swimming, beavers, and now sessions organised by the local evangelical church – anything to fill in those notoriously dull hours between school and bed.

It's a blessing that the Ku Kluz Klan is yet to open a Dales branch as the costumes and fire-lit meetings in tree-lined clearings would be right up his street, as long as they handed out a Cadbury's selection pack at Christmas and finished gatherings with a singalong or kickabout.