As I distract myself from the horrors of Brexit by listening to Eurovision songs from the 1980s and writing blue envelopes for the two people I hope will be the next councillors for Almond ward in Edinburgh, Kevin Lang and Louise Young, It thought you might want the chance to watch Tim Farron’s speech from yesterday.

It’s fine to read the words on the page, but you really need to see him perform it. He puts his heart and soul into it. It has a few funny moments, including the obligaory homage to Dr Paul Nuttall.

I did wonder if the comparison between Trump, Putin, Le Pen and May was a bit too much. I absolutely agree with the analysis. For sure, Trump, Putin and Le Pen are all much further down the slippery slope, but Theresa May is at the top of it. Populists in power do their best to rid themselves of anything that would scrutinise them or check their power. Look at how Theresa May has already spent a small fortune of our hard earned taxes trying to circumvent Parliament over Article 50. And then her ministers said nothing while the Daily Fail decried judges as “enemies of the people.” Theresa May thinks nobody can touch her at the moment and it shows in her actions.

The passage about Tory MPs who know that the Government has moved far from the manifesto they stood on and feel uncomfortable has some fairly uncompromising language. I mean, really, “Defect, resign, or we’re coming to get you” is not exactly a warm invitation. You get the feeling his preference is the third option.

If you don’t have time to watch it all, this summary from Alex Wilcock will help you.

TL;DR Business – fund us. Sensible Tories – defect. Labour – you've died; stop twitching, we're taking your patch. @timfarron #LDConf

— Alex Wilcock (@alexwilcock) March 19, 2017

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social