Descending from my hotel room at the conference venue - I grabbed a cup of tea and immediately found someone interesting to converse with. This is the Campaign for an English Parliament and he gave an update during the conference. We had an interesting discussion and he gave me some hope for the future. I discovered that The English Democrats abbreviate themselves to TEDs.

I recognised several delegates from other fora and it was good to get better acquainted. Without going through ALL the conversations I had - I was genuinely astonished at how well-informed people were about history and geopolitics. These were fascinating conversations as they are topics close to my heart.

TEDs have enjoyed a reputation for being a less youthful cohort and these older people have a long experience of politics, they have nuance and a realism which has been lacking in the new zealous parties I had participated in before. They support some great initiatives that are of real benefit to England - the prosecution of rapists, a campaign regarding animal slaughter, the Workers of England Union, the establishment of a parliament for England and - I believe - a Referendum on seceding from the UK; all initiatives which can be achieved without even being in Government. It was refreshing to not hear the simplistic populist points that many of the new parties intone. However their manifesto is being updated to respond to the ever increasing dangers and humiliations being heaped upon us.

The conference had two speakers who outlined the importance of promoting our culture and this is also close to my heart as I now work in the music sphere and in addition have recently formed a folk band that specialises in traditional folk songs and sea shanties. This culture was one they themselves practiced with poetry being spoken preceding dinners and warm ale drunk late into the night and Jerusalem sung at the end of the conference. There was even a dog.

There is a consumer research question that reduces all the different measuring parameters of customer satisfaction down to one question - ‘would you recommend this to someone else?’ I can answer this - “yes I will be recommending TEDs and encouraging people to join”

Alexandra

ED. Interesting to get a new delegate's first impressions, and they seem about right to me. Teds is one acronym and EDP another. Take your pick? Both are useful, the formal and the informal.