Following our visit earlier this year to Northern Ireland, members of the CPF management team have met this past week with the CPF Regional Coordinators for both Wales and Scotland, Lyndon Jones and Marek Zemanik.
These meetings were extremely productive and explored ways of ensuring that Conservative members in the member nations of the UK can and do take part in CPF discussions on both reserved and delegated matters. It was clear to both the CPF Treasurer and Manager, David Parkinson and John Hayward, that under Lyndon's very able leadership, the CPF in Wales has been a success for many years and there are lessons for the CPF more widely in what has and has not worked there. Equally, the Voluntary Director, Hannah David, and David Parkinson were both delighted to meet with the Scottish Conservatives' Policy Director, Marek Zemanik at the Scottish Parliament.
In future, the views of CPF Regional Coordinators will be sought to ensure that all national discussion papers reflect the concerns and interests of members across all of the nations in the UK. Wales already produces its own devolved CPF papers, responses to which are seen by the relevant Welsh ministers. This example was taken to Scotland, where it was agreed that, for national discussion papers covering policy areas that have been devolved, a Scottish version of the paper will be produced covering the same topic, so that Scottish voices are heard on these matters. The CPF hopes also to agree a similar mechanism for members in Northern Ireland.
The CPF believes that steps such as these have a big part to play in ensuring that the Forum is truly inclusive of all members’ views. Many thanks to Lyndon and Marek for taking the lead on behalf of our Welsh and Scottish colleagues – the CPF looks forward to working further with them, just as it does with Annika Nestius-Brown in Northern Ireland and our other Regional Coordinators across England.