I like to think that people understand that the Conservative Party has changed. It is now a party that cares about the environment as much as Europe, and about schools as much as businesses. However, outside the world of politics there are still a lot of people who are unsure about the party, unsure about what we stand for, and what we would do if elected into Government.

I want people in the grassroots to get a chance to hear what the Conservatives stand for. That is why I organised two round-table events for people from the community to come along and ask questions to senior Conservatives. Tariq Ahmed, Vice Chairman of the Conservative party with responsibility for cities, and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Conservative shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, have both recently come to Scotland to meet with people, and engage in some lively discussion.

The set-up of the meetings very much follows the ‘Cameron Direct’ model, where members of the audience ask whatever they want to – and the panel answer on issues as diverse as youth unemployment and the war in Afghanistan. The audience was in no way a Conservative one. In fact I wanted to bring as many people from outside the party in to have a chance to hear the Conservative point of view. That included people from the community, but also organisations such as the RNIB, Oxfam, Social Justice Scotland and local community groups.

The first meeting focused on Labour’s recession. The audience wanted to know what the Conservatives were going to do to deal with Labour’s debt mountain, and what could be done to deal with the jobs crisis that Labour has created in Britain today. Tariq spoke about George Osborne’s plans to give tax breaks to help new businesses create jobs, and Conservative plans to get public spending under control.

However, alongside the economy, there were a range of other issues that people were interested to know about. They wanted to discuss what the Conservatives could do for young people, and about our involvement in the war in Afghanistan. This is of course a very delicate subject for British Muslims to deal with. But not one which our discussion shied away from.

The second discussion with Sayeeda Warsi hit on some of the same questions. However, following Sayeeda’s appearance on BBC’s Question Time with the BNP leader Nick Griffin, Sayeeda was also questioned on whether she felt that racism was an issue for Scotland. Her response was the same as mine, and I am sure most Scottish Asians would agree. Scotland is not a racist country. The BNP are gaining from a feeling of disaffection with politics and society by people. And the way to defeat the poisonous ideas and beliefs of groups such as the BNP is by emphasising our togetherness, not exaggerating our differences.

What I found really interesting about the discussions was the reaction of people afterwards. These were not people who would have considered themselves Conservatives. But afterwards the one thing I kept hearing was how the Conservatives seemed different, that they had changed, and that the Conservatives were a party that were worth voting for.

By Hamira Khan