“Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!” the Liberal party conference was instructed in 1981 by David Steel, the most farcical of the long string of comic singers who have led that preposterous institution, starting with William Ewart Gladstone. The occasion was the temporary surge in popularity that had led the SDP/Liberal Alliance to believe it would be swept to power at the next general election. In the event, those expectations were, to say the least, disappointed.