When  some of Aberystwyth beach is on the road outside the venue of the Welsh Party conference, you know things are not quite right. The rain and wind in Wales this weekend has been dire, with roads closed, train lines down and houses flooded. At least two of our party members experienced flooding of their houses, and those of us who travelled to and from the conference experienced delays, and many did not even get to us.

But, along with the exceptional weather, we had an exceptional Autumn conference. Vince Cable and Sal Brinton battled to get to us and we are so grateful. Two campaign Federal Party staff also endured bus replacement services to be with us to support us. Your Liberal Britain ran two workshops. Welsh superstars (the Williams’ trio) – Kirsty Williams, Roger Williams and Mark Williams were in attendance.

We had debates on protecting rural Wales, a more equal Wales, dumping of nuclear waste, prostate cancer. We had a Q and A with the only Liberal Democrat in the country changing lives of people from government, in Kirsty Williams, our Education Cabinet Secretary; she told us of the newly launched  rural school scheme called ‘e-sgol’ (Welsh word for school is ysgol, which means ladder) – using IT to connect children in rural areas to teachers in specialist subjects.

We passed a motion to enact a new governance structure. We listened to Sgarmes, a Welsh choir move us to tears with their rendition of the hymn, Calon Lan, and then to laughter as they imitated the Theresa May  “dance” movements to their rendition of Dancing Queen (Vince had to be held back).

We had fun, we engaged in serious political discussion and we all came together to celebrate Welsh Liberalism, which is definitely alive and kicking. A bit like the weather.

* Jane Dodds is Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats