John Stevenson MP: Blue Collar Conservatism is the key to winning the next election. Please join us next Monday.

John Stevenson is the Member of Parliament for Carlisle and the Chairman of the Blue Collar Conservatism Advisory Group. Follow John on Twitter.

On Monday, I will be speaking at a Blue Collar Conservatisn event on perceptions of the Conservatives amongst ordinary voters and their implications for victory in 2015.  I will be speaking alongside former Defence Secretary, Liam Fox; fellow North West MP and Disabilities Minister, Esther McVey and the journalist Martin Durkin, producer of Margaret Thatcher: Death of a Revolutionary.

Going into this event, I believe that last week’s local election results are the perfect illustration for the challenge and the opportunity awaiting the Conservative Party in 2015.  Much has been written in the past week about what the results mean for each of the parties, with a good deal of advice about what David Cameron should do - ranging from tacking right to tacking left to doing nothing at all.

In the 2015 Election, I will be defending one of the most marginal seats in the country.  Carlisle is a traditionally Labour Northern, industrial and largely urban seat.  It is at the front line of the seats we need to hold, but is also representative of the kind of seats which we need to win.  Without Carlisle and the seats like it across the North and Midlands, we will not be forming the next government.  Yet despite the difficulties which the Party faced in the County Council Elections, I am actually more confident than I have been in a long time.

Do not get me wrong: we have a mountain to climb to win the next election.  No one can deny the scale of the challenge which the Conservatives face in 2015, just to maintain our current position, let alone secure an overall majority.

John Stevenson MP: Let's prove we're not the party of the privileged and reform the House of Lords... before Labour does on its own terms

John Stevenson is Member of Parliament for Carlisle.  Follow John on Twitter.

“It’s a third or fourth term issue”; “why change something that is not broken”; “the public are not interested” – these are some of the usual comments that often accompany discussion on the 100 year old issue of House of Lords reform.

But things are different now.

As a consequence of Coalition politics, House of Lords reform is to be a first term issue. It was, in one form or another, in all three main parties manifestos and it was included in the coalition agreement.

And the system is not just straining a little; it is starting to change significantly. The removal of most of the hereditary peers, the ever increasing number of “political appointments” and the changing attitudes within the House of Lords about its own role within Parliament are issues which have to be addressed.

As for the public, they may not consider reform to be the highest priority, but when asked about the issue, they are overwhelmingly supportive of reform, many seeing the House of Lords as the preserve of the rich, the privileged and the well connected – effectively asking how can the presently constituted House of Lords claim true legitimacy in a 21^st century democracy.

John Stevenson MP: Elected executive mayors will bring accountability, a mandate, and an effective figurehead to local authorities - and their time is dawning

John Stevenson was elected MP for Carlisle at this year's general election.

It’s time for the subject of elected mayors in this country to be properly examined. For too long now proposals have been met with enthusiastic opinion, but little else. The potential change to the political landscape that elected mayors could bring would be hugely beneficial to our democratic system – and frankly, I think it’s much needed.

The current non-elected UK mayor is a step behind their elected international counterpart. In the USA, in the Commonwealth and in many European countries, a mayor is a local figurehead who has the mandate and power to influence change on both a local and national level. Our mayors are a peculiar mixture of ceremony and civic figurehead.

It was the Blair government that first introduced the legislation for elected mayors through the Local Government Act 2000. A petition with the signatures of at least 5% of those eligible to vote, or a simple resolution of the Council would result in a referendum for the introduction of an elected mayor.

Since 2000, there have been just 37 referendums, and only 13 results were in favour of an elected mayor. So why the lack of take up? I think the biggest political hurdle is on a local level. The entrenched views of local parties, councillors, and council officials are often a barrier to even minor change; so change on this scale is always likely to meet opposition.

John Stevenson MP: Lessons for the 2015 election six months on from the 2010 contest

John Stevenson MP gained Carlisle for the Conservatives for the first time since 1959 at this year's general election, which took place six months ago today.

It’s exactly six months on, and a first glance at the 2010 General Election map should be enough to get any true blue heart racing. In a clear rejection of the Labour government, the country looks as if a tin of blue paint has been spilled across the South coast through the Midlands with streaks moving North.

This reflects the rural and Southern domination of the Conservative party in general, and the great success of the election in particular; winning 100 new seats and coming out as the country’s largest party both by popular vote and the number of seats. There should be no doubt that the result was a good one.

I did of course say at first glance. Begin to dissect the map into the areas and regions that make up our country, and I think there are some very interesting results of which we should take heed.

Firstly, Labour are all but extinct in Southern England (excluding London). The Tony Blair effect seems to have worn off and the future for Labour in this region will depend on what direction the party decides to take. If they sink back into a very left-wing unionised party, appealing only to their core vote, the South will be lost to them for a very long time. But it’s not all good news.

Whilst the Coalition Government is working better than I think anyone expected, the truth is that if we want a Conservative Government which has a working majority we need to win another 35-40 seats – but from where? It is the map which has the key.

David Leighton and John Stevenson: We must challenge Labour's spurious narrative that public spending cuts always lead to worse public services - because that has been central to the rise in government waste

David Leighton and John Stevenson were council candidates in London at this year's council elections. Here they emphasise the importance of exposing Labour's empty rhetoric on spending and public services.

The population is now increasingly aware of the public waste in the UK. Shockingly, about half the working population has first-hand experience. The state largesse during the New Labour years knew no bounds and consumed many through state and quasi-state employment.

While dreaming up fanciful projects with no regard for the electorate – either in terms of whether, shock horror, the public requested or needed a project, or whether that was an appropriate and responsible use of the public’s money – the budget deficit and debt grew and grew.

Many a left-wing friend incessantly blames the bankers and says why didn’t you come forward earlier? To answer that charge, we need turn no further than to the Party’s 2005 manifesto, which states:

"Today, government is spending too much, wasting too much and taxing too much. Britain cannot continue indefinitely to spend more than she is earning without higher taxes or higher interest rates – either of which will harm our economic prospects. If we are to secure our future prosperity, government must once again start to live within its means."

So the daily digest of stories of waste since May 7 is no surprise, whether it’s French designer sofas, contemplation rooms, medium-size engineering projects for bored local authority officials, Blackpool jazz jamborees or must-attend conferences in Cape Town.

During the election campaign we found ourselves more angry than ever about Labour's record of waste and economic failure. But, worryingly, we found that this anger was not shared by too many voters.