We’re in the middle of a much-vaunted Liberal Democrat surge, but it can be difficult to discern what it all means. Lib Dem leader Vince Cable and his advisers made an effort to outline the basis for the party’s revival in his conference speech last September.

With the middle ground disappearing amid years of economic stagnation, flat wages, and insufficient public spending, that the Lib Dems themselves were complicit in, the party needed a new message. Brexit provided the opportunity. And Cable seized it in his conference speech, using the party’s second referendum platform as a basis to pose against the establishment. Brexit, he said, would mean “years of economic pain justified by the erotic spasm of leaving the European Union. Economic pain felt — of course — not by them but by those least able to afford it.”

The “erotic spasm” line was heavily trailed. Cable rather uncomfortably discussed it on Radio 4 before the speech. His predecessor, Nick Clegg, complained in advance that the “spasm” was “like something out of a Carry On movie.” In the end, Cable, feeling embarrassed by such a risqué line, fluffed it. We were, he said, in the midst of an “exotic spresm.”