Martin Vickers MP: Voters are ahead of the game on Europe. They don't want to wait four years for a referendum.

Martin Vickers is Member of Parliament for the Cleethorpes Constituency.  Follow Martin on Twitter.

Turning the clock back to October 2011, when I was one of the 81 rebels who voted for an In–Out EU referendum, I referred during the debate to having attended a Civic Service the previous day and, even for me, as a confirmed Eurosceptic who voted to leave in 1975, being surprised at what I described as ‘the real people of England’ - because every person I spoke to was urging me to vote for the referendum; I never had any doubts that I would do, so but their support and encouragement spurred me on.

During the weekend after the recent county council elections, I read and listened to more reports and analysis on them than is good for anyone. Then later, in need of some light relief, I settled down to watch the ‘Antiques Roadshow’, and couldn’t help thinking that here again were gathered the ‘real people of England’ – loyal, hardworking and, whatever their voting habits, conservative by nature; many of them would have voted for UKIP – for most of them that would be a first. The challenge for the Conservative Party is to make sure that it’s the last, but with the European elections coming next year that is going to be extremely difficult. Vote for the same party twice running, and it can easily become habit-forming.          

My constituency takes in part of North & North East Lincolnshire Unitary Councils who had no elections this year, though in April UKIP secured their second seat in a North East Lincolnshire by-election – both in seats that more often than not return a Tory so on 2nd May. So my centre of attention focussed on the neighbouring Lincolnshire County Council area, where UKIP scored spectacular, but, in the main, predictable gains.

The area around Boston was where the most spectacular gains came. These were the predictable ones, given the levels of immigratin they have experienced in recent years. Large cities can absorb immigrants in a way that small provincial towns can’t. Local public services struggle, resentment grows.

Martin Vickers MP: Needed now - a Government message for Mr and Mrs Average

Martin Vickers is Member of Parliament for the Cleethorpes Constituency.  Follow Martin on Twitter.

For 16 of my 26 years as a councillor I represented the Scartho ward, first on the Great Grimsby Borough Council and then, after the formation of unitary councils, as part of North East Lincolnshire Council. Though not an absolutely safe ward, indeed I had an enforced rest in the mid-90s when the Labour Party were winning almost all before them, but it is, or should I say was, the safest Conservative ward in Grimsby covering some of the leafiest suburbs but also a council estate and a large estate of 1960/70s properties – the homes of Mr & Mrs Average – many of whom are those that determine the outcome of General Elections – swing voters; hard-working and aspirational, many the children of parents who benefited from the policies of the Thatcher era most notably by buying their council home. Last week it elected a UKIP councillor. Why?

When I lost the seat in 1994 New Labour were speaking for Mr & Mrs Average, they could identify with the language of Tony Blair. I won back the seat in 1999 – two years into the Labour government, partly because the gloss was already coming off the Blair project and partly a result of my five years of campaigning on local issues.

Now after just two years of the Coalition our message is muted; swing voters can’t identify with our message. We can’t convince voters that we are "on their side" when we give top-earners a tax cut leaving Mr & Mrs Average reeling under increased energy costs and paying more and more at the petrol pump.

Martin Vickers MP: The party which acts quickest to increase representation of working class MPs could determine future elections

Martin Vickers is the Member of Parliament for Cleethorpes.

That favourite British obsession, class, has reared its head once again as a major feature of political debate. So here’s my take on it. I’m from working-class stock – that’s not as rare on the Tory benches as you would imagine from some of the media coverage.

My first home was a privately rented house in Cleethorpes. My parents were then allocated a council house in Grimsby – one that they eventually bought. Not only am I not that rare in being from a working-class background but I’m not alone on the Government benches in being "a council house Tory".

We all have stereotypes in our mind, which are, sometimes, indeed often, completely the opposite of reality. Ask the public what comes to mind when they think of a typical Conservative MP; public school, Oxbridge, stockbroker, toff. Perhaps not straight from state school to work, redundancy and unemployment, but take a few minutes to study Hansard for the 19th December last year.

The Party’s problem, as with most things in politics, is not the reality but the public perception. Like many Conservative voters in the 1950s and 60s, my parents described themselves as "working-class Tories". It didn’t worry them that leaders such as MacMillan were ‘toffs’ what mattered was that they were capable and showed clearly that they identified with the needs of everyone. It mattered not whether they went to Eton, Fettes or, like me, Havelock in Grimsby.

But I’m not sure that voters think the same today. Perhaps this is because more is being made of the class issue and it’s something the Party must come to terms with. In the medium-term it means opening up the restrictive selection process that can discourage working class candidates, and when they do make it through the process and become the prospective candidate a modest amount of financial support could make a significant difference, and a recognition that right up to the campaign proper candidates must earn their living wouldn’t go amiss.

Martin Vickers MP: We must make conference less expensive so members can engage and participate in real debate

Martin Vickers is the Member of Parliament for Cleethorpes.

I have a confession to make – I like Party Conference! Some of my parliamentary colleagues, it has to be said, are less enthusiastic. I attended my first in 1976. For a Young Conservative, as we were then called (why on earth did we change the name?) to see the leaders of our Party perform on the platform and to rub shoulders with them in the bars was a great thrill. The highlight of the Conference was Michael Heseltine’s famous comments about the Labour army marching "left, left, left." We mustn’t deny our supporters who freely give their time to deliver leaflets, and the like, the one annual opportunity of mixing with our leaders and of putting across their concerns directly to Ministers.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, Executives and Branch Committee meetings would sit and ponder for hours about the wording of resolutions from Associations that would appear in the Conference Handbook. These would give a flavour of what the grassroots were thinking and - it’s hard to believe nowadays - representatives would be balloted on which two would be debated in the main Conference Hall. Usually the ones chosen would favour the return of capital punishment or some other issue that would make delegates roar and conference organisers cringe.

Martin Vickers MP: If the country wants to re-elect the Coalition in 2015, we will need to consider having single Coalition candidates

Martin Vickers was elected MP for Cleethorpes at this year's general election.

The suggestion by Grantham and Stamford MP, Nick Boles, that for the next General Election it might be advantageous for Conservative and Lib Dem candidates to fight as coalition candidates has caused a predictable stir. Broadly speaking I agree with Nick; I find it difficult to see how we are going to convince the public that after working together for five years we then go our separate ways. It all hinges on what the public mood is as we approach the Election.

I am a committed Conservative; a member of the Party since 1974, a councillor for a quarter of a century, 15 years as a constituency agent and now the newly elected member for the constituency that bears the name of my home town - Cleethorpes.

After the awful Blair/Brown years I desperately wanted a Conservative government but it was evident during the campaign that though the country shared my wish to be rid of the Labour government it was hesitant about whether or not to commit fully to the Conservatives. Our first-past-the-post voting has a strange way of delivering what the voters actually want - in this case a Conservative-led government but in partnership with the Lib Dems. My experience talking to my constituents – as I was on a street stall last Saturday morning – confirms my belief that there is widespread support for the coalition and if we succeed in restoring the country’s finances, as I’m sure we will, then the country will want to re-elect the coalition.

One thing is certain – if the coalition were to break up before its term expires then the party responsible for the break will be punished by the voters.