Cllr Victoria Borwick: Why aren't the Conservatives encouraging more events like Conservative Renewal?

Cllr Victoria Borwick AM is London Assembly Member and Statutory Deputy Mayor.

I would like to commend the organisers of the Conservative Renewal Conference in Windsor last Saturday.  An informal gathering enabling delegates to hear, debate and discuss ideas from a broad range of speakers.  It was wonderful to be away from the frenetic body searches, and expense of Conference – is this the way forward?

Far from shunning such grass roots activity, the Party should actively be encouraging local conferences of this nature – if we as a Party want to engage with our supporters who enjoy the opportunity of debate then every local association, particularly in those areas where we have less support, should be encouraged to run their own mini-conferences.  These should be supported by the offer of excellent speakers from the Party.

Windsor attracted about 50 speakers on a broad range of topics, including a thoughtful debate on “what should be the nature of the UK’s new relationship with the EU”, and a good debate on immigration - how refreshing that this is now a subject that we can discuss without rancour.  Two sessions on how to improve our campaigning including hearing about new Kanto software for real time canvassing, data collection and telling – long overdue innovations to making sure we use our volunteers better.  Yes, there are Conservatives out there who want to win and make sure we have the tools to do it.  There were also everal breakout sessions, including on our arts policy, and a well attended session on “marriage and the family”

In spite of the array of speakers, I gather that front bench spokesman were barred from coming to share their vision on their portfolios – a great shame, as I think they would have been well received in a friendly positive atmosphere.  No doubt they may have received some “constructive challenge”, but from those who wish them success in the long term -not backstabbing colleagues who cannot wait to usurp their position.

Victoria Borwick: We need a solution to help increase aviation capacity - either growing Gatwick or building a completely new airport

Victoria Borwick is a London-wide member of the London Assembly and a councillor in Kensington and Chelsea she is the Conservative Member of the GLA Transport Committee and Conservative Aviation Spokesman.

Tony Travers of the London School of Economics was spot on when he said in the Times on 2nd November, that unless Britain invests in major airport infrastructure such as Lord Foster's Isle of Grain proposal or the Mayor of London's Estuary Airport, the country will face decline. The Government has yet to show it understands what is needed on aviation policy.

Heathrow runs at 98% capacity, with jets circulating for an accumulative 55 hours every day over London. It is estimated that the British economy is loosing £1.2 billion a year to Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt because our own airports in the South East are unable to compete with increases in capacity taking place at other European hubs. Business argue that the UK risks losing trade deals with emerging economies such as China if we do not do something about air capacity.

Unfortunately we have put off a serious discussion about the inadequacies of our present airport provision for too long. We should have been confronting these strategic decisions years ago. Even radical solutions such as Boris Johnson’s Estuary Airport under present planning and legal regimes, could not be delivered in time to stop the slide against our competitors. “Boris Island”, a planned multi runway airport that would sit in the Thames Estuary would take 25 years to deliver and cost £50 billion to construct. Lord Foster's Isle of Grain has a similar price tag and time frame.

Victoria Borwick: All public sector employees should have to disclose details of their pay, allowances and pensions

Victoria Borwick is a London-wide member of the London Assembly and a councillor in Kensington and Chelsea

We have all been following the MPs' expenses issue and, as an elected member of the London Assembly and a local councillor, I am certainly very happy that my salary and expenses should be clearly available - after all, the public (i.e. voters) pay for our salaries.

However, surely the next point to move to is that all those in receipt of a salary package from the public purse should have these published. This would include senior employees at our town halls, civil servants, NHS, senior teachers, the police, Transport for London employees and so forth. It is said that of those in work, over 50% work for the state. So whilst we are all paying these salaries, it would be a very good idea for the amounts to be published.

One of the results of the investigation into MPs' expense claims has been to bring their salaries into focus. But how does this compare to senior civil servants and to those in charge at your local town hall?