Mainstream call from Tory leader

Ms Goldie will say Conservatives have been caricatured in Scotland

Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie is set to tell party members that they must get into the mainstream of Scottish politics.

In a speech to a policy conference, she is expected to say the party has spent too much time talking about issues that are only important to Conservatives.

She will call on members to focus on what is relevant to the electorate.

Ms Goldie is expected to praise the contribution of leader David Cameron and claim that the party is changing.

"I applaud the vision of David Cameron in making us examine what we are as a party and how we are seen by others," she will say at the event in Dunblane.

"He was spot on when he said we had spent far too much time talking about what was important to us rather than what was important to ordinary people.

"Nowhere is that more obvious than in Scotland. We have been caricatured because of electoral challenges as being out of touch with mainstream Scotland."

'Compassionate Conservative'

Ms Goldie will say that everything the party says and does "must focus as never before on the centre ground" and reflect a "modern compassionate Conservative party".

She is expected to say that this has already been reflected in policy pledges she has announced.

"A drugs strategy to take people off drugs - that's going to the heart of people's concerns," she will say.

"Significant help for pensioner households with their council tax - that is going to the heart of their financial anxieties.

"A robust sentencing proposal for repeat offenders - that is going to the heart of the concerns of victims and their communities."

She will also highlight the Conservatives' "eco bonus scheme" as being at the heart of caring about future generations and the environment.