Paddy Ashdown became the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1988. He inherited a party which was not in a particularly good place.
The merger of the Liberal Party and the SDP had been difficult, to say the least, poll ratings were low.
Worse still Dr David Owen continued to lead a separate force supported by MPs Rosie Barnes and John Cartwright.
Thatcher appeared to be going on forever, still with a comfortable Commons majority and showing no signs of going anytime soon.
Labour under Neil Kinnock was modernising a party very much on the left.
Dreams of breaking the mould seemed a long way off for the newly formed Lib Dems. However, the space for a radical party of the centre-left still exited if it could be rebuilt.
The Continuing SDP were seen off within a short period following humiliation in a byelection in which they finished behind the Monster Raving Loony party, and despite a surge in the 1989 European elections, the Green challenge came to nothing.
By the 1992 General Election, the good ship of Liberalism had steadied, and the crisis seemed to be a thing of the past.
Then two years later Tony Blair came onto the scene.
Paddy quite rightly viewed Blair’s project of positioning Labour more in the centre as a challenge that couldn’t be ignored, and he sought to build a new relationship based on cooperation.
Meetings followed the details of which are documented in Paddy’s diaries of the period.
Blair despite his repeated line that the split in what he described as the progressive forces in Britain at the start of the 20th century being disastrous and his desire to heal it came up short.
Paddy paints a vivid picture of a man frightened to death of the Tory press and increasingly unable to deliver Labour to a position where it abandoned tribalism in favour of pluralism.
Proportional Representation quite rightly a deal breaker for the Lib Dems was something Blair would not embrace.
It is clear that is was the Liberals who were the principled ones walking away from a deal which could have meant seats in the cabinet.
The result was a missed opportunity to reform politics in our country radically.
In the circumstances Paddy’s actions were understandable, and in the 1997 General Election, he led a party that more than doubled its parliamentary representation.
Unfortunately, despite all the hype he was dealing with a party which was just the same old Labour in a different guise.
In future should the moderates take back control of Labour which I believe that they will we must tread very carefully should they make overtures in our direction?
We have returned to a position of equidistance, and we should maintain it under all circumstances.
No pacts or deals but instead a crusade for Liberalism campaigning to get our candidates elected in all circumstances.
* David is a member of Horsham and Crawley Liberal Democrats