There have been seven Liberal leaders in my lifetime. Jo Grimmond hardly registered on the scale at the time, though later, as MP for Orkney and Shetland, he seemed largely harmless. Jeremy Thorpe (Devon North) – well we just knew something wasn’t right, didn’t we!

David Steel’s lengthy tenure saw the only period where Liberals got a chance to co-operate with Government and the turbulence of the Labour-SDP split. Steel (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale and various other Borders seats with unfeasibly long names) oscillated wildly between being a figure of fun to being a serious and sincere politician whose career included significant personal achievements above and beyond party politics. How much more could he have achieved without the bunch of clowns that were his party holding him back? Paddy Ashdown (Yeovil) followed a similar path. While looking entirely his own man, playing on his military past and generating one of the best Sun headlines ever, he stuck to the Steel formula, put his party in the zone by clinging to the guy ropes of Tony’s Big Tent and shuffled off to do some real achieving before the weather changed.

Charlie Kennedy (Somewhere in the Highlands) was, of course, the first SDP man to lead the Liberals. Still something of a cult hero in Scotland where many struggled to understand why operating on half a bottle of whisky a day constituted any sort of a problem, Kennedy found himself operating in a reverse position to Steel’s in 83-87 – with an ineffective opposition party that could potentially be replaced until the Tories came to their senses and sacked IDS. The Ming thing was clearly a mistake – the sort that happens when parties need a new leader but haven’t really thought it through. Shuffling him off to back to Inverness (or wherever it actually is) was almost inevitable from day one.

Nick Clegg represents a departure for the Liberal clan. The first of their party to represent a seat that is a) urban and b) a place that is not recognisably on the fringe. With a due respects to everyone down there Yeovil, even though it at least has some voters – a factor noticeably absent from the four Scottish seats, is still part of the slightly weird and ‘separate’ west.  This is why Clegg felt the need to remind us at regular intervals that he represented somewhere ‘real’ – even if his Attercliffe seat was always Sheffield Nicepart (insomuch as there is a nice part). By reciting the ‘Sheffield’ mantra he was saying “Look, I represent somewhere mainstream, somewhere that could even be Labour.”

If I had to rank Liberal leaders in a league table of irritation Clegg would be out at the top by a mile. But just because I find him pompous, patronising, pious and fingers down a blackboard irritating, doesn’t mean that others will. David Cameron is right that Clegg’s positioning as “we’re not the other two” is easy stuff, but that doesn’t stop it being a sensible and effective approach.

Michael Gove, allowed out of his box for the day, asserted that the ‘eccentric’ policies of the Liberal Democrats would now come under scrutiny. Mr Gove, I always thought of \Mr Gove as somewhat ‘eccentric’ looking himself but, as custodian of the DIY Schools ‘Big Idea’, should know an ‘eccentric’ policy when he sees one. He might be right, but the big Liberal idea – of changing the rules of UK politics, may find public disapproval in detail, but in its broad sweep it is entirely with the public mood.

The great unknown at the outset of this election was how the ‘anti-politics’ mood would affect the election. Now we know. Clegg and the Liberals have found a way to direct the undoubted anger at the system to their advantage. We also know that what many, and certainly Labour strategists had banked on , was a fact: the Conservative Party has not convinced the electorate either of itself or of its offering.

The remaining paradox, few like of the idea of a hung Parliament, remains to be resolved.