Improving policy development through member participation

I believe the revival of our Party needs to be policy led if we are to attract significant numbers of Scots to vote for us again, or indeed for a first time.

If elected to serve as Deputy Chairman of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party I will make reinvigorating our Conservative Policy Forum a priority for the voluntary party, so that every member who wants to have an opportunity to input their ideas to policy development is able to do so.

I would like to see CPF send out monthly discussion papers to Associations asking members to discuss an area of policy and to send a summary of discussions back to the centre so that we can collate the thoughts of members from across Scotland and enter new ideas into discussion with relevant members of Annabel's team at Holyrood or with David Mundell and relevant members of David Cameron's team at Westminster.

With a proper channel for input from members, together with advice from expert panels in each policy field, we can help colleagues at Holyrood and at Westminster formulate new and exciting policy designed to engage and to appeal to Scots in communities the length and breadth of our country.

Complimentary to development of new policy is a strategy as to how we present new policy to a Scottish electorate who are sceptical about Conservative intentions as a result of their perceptions of our past. I often refer to us needing to give people who might consider voting Conservative just three or four things to tell friends and family, when they sit down to dinner, are the reason why they will be voting Conservative next time.

For me this means we need to do what our opposition do - simply tell the electorate the things in our portfolio of policies which are overwhelmingly popular. Our policies on crime are a good example of an area of policy where we connect with the aspirations of the Scottish people and yet how many people whose lives are blighted by criminal activity on a daily basis know the detail of our policy?

We are the ones saying life should mean life; that the time you are sentenced to is the time your should serve; that people who carry knives on our streets should expect to go to jail for doing so; and that prison should not be like a hotel with a better range of TV channels than many people enjoy at home. Except for a lawless few in our society, these are messages which chime with the attitudes of Scottish people and we need to develop a range of similar messages in every policy field which mirror the popularity of our law and order policies.

Our task then is to communicate a range of popular policies to an electorate crying out for a sensible alternative at Holyrood who can demonstrate a range of policies designed to sort our country out while bringing hope to areas where there is little to be hopeful about, just as David Cameron has managed to do at Westminster.

To play our part, the voluntary wing of the Party needs to ensure we are organised at constituency level and capable of getting leaflets through doors explaining our policies. In return I am advocating members are afforded a chance to input ideas to policy development and are consulted as to the way policy is presented.