Cumbria Area Conservative Conference

I attended the first annual conference of Cumbria Area Conservatives today, which was organised in the Low Wood hotel by my successor as Chairman of Cumbria Conservatives, Kevin Beaty.

Speakers included the Business minister Matt Hancock, one of the Conservative party's rising stars, Penrith & the Borders MP Rory Stewart, both the North West region's Conservative MEPs, Police and Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes, representatives of three local industries (Civil Nuclear Power, Tourism, and Farming) a panel of the four Conservative PPCs in Cumbria and Conservative local government leaders in the county.

I took six pages of notes and will probably be posting a few further items from the conference over the coming weekend, but I will say now that I thought it was a really successful day and all the speakers were in great form.

Matt Hancock gave the opening keynote speech with some important points about Economic recovery in the North West and how the government's Long Term Economic Plan is helping the recovery to gather pace in Cumbria.

Rory Stewart gave a tour de force address on local issues and then, in his capacity as chairman of Parliament's Defence committee, gave a masterly reply to a question about relations between the West and Russia. He pointed out that Vladimir Putin only respects strength and has broken every assurance he has given about his relations with Russia's neighbours: NATO needs to be able to defend itself in a dangerous world, indeed a world which now looks a lot more dangerous than it did five years ago.

Following on from this Saj Karim MEP reminded us that Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP had said "I admire Putin" and suggested that people need to think very carefully before casting their votes in May about what might be the consequence of that vote. 

Jacqueline Foster MEP spoke about the European issues in the forthcoming election and reminded us that the Conservatives are the only party who can deliver a referendum on EU membership.

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