AT this time of the year one of the things I most enjoy about retirement is the freedom to dip in and out of the political conferences.

In my professional life conferences played a major part and I enjoyed the cut and thrust of political/social debate on which, ultimately, feasible policies were achieved.

As a professional trades union officer, I worked on the basis that neither the right or the left wing sections of my union were 100 per cent right, but taking account of both side's views, you could usually come up with a workable agreement.

At the Trades Union Conference, my first speech was to oppose a motion to support another union, two of whose members had been arrested and jailed for illegal picketing, one of whom is today a well known TV actor.

It was a heated debate. I ended my speech with the comment ''They didn't catch enough of the b******* and they didn't jail them for long enough". The mover of the motion in his right of reply referred to me as a "neo-fascist pig"!

Later that morning when we met up for a coffee, he explained his principles to me and I explained the reality of the situation to him, and we remained friends until my retirement.

In 1979 the rot set in when the Tories employed Saatchi and Saatchi to improve their image. But all parties would now do well to realise that the public are not fools. Only out of free and open debate can you achieve workable policies.

Wars have been fought and lives lost, and even the threat of terrorism cannot be used to deny us this country's most prized possession: freedom of speech.

Liz Edge,

Parkside Close,

York.

Updated: 09:25 Thursday, October 06, 2005