One of the things which is comforting about being a Lib Dem is that one is not just allowed, but positively encouraged to take the piss - out of oneself, the party, and politics in general. Having never been a member of any other political party, I can't say how unusual this is, but it doesn't seem to be quite so prevalent in either of the Big Two. The Liberal Revue is a night of sketches and such run by the guys behind Liberator, the serial filkers behind the Liberator Songbook. It promised to be an irreverent and witty look at the way things are in politics, with occasional forays into song. It was with this in mind that I reluctantly forked over £20 for two tickets to it, having been assured that it would be the highlight of the conference.

We got there slightly late, having lingered too long over the delicious beer at the Goat and Tricycle with the lovely daddies Richard and Alex, and the breast-obsessed Whenman, and the award-winning Mortimer, and various others (who was Chris, btw? He was GORGEOUS... Ahem), and thus missed the opening "telephone call" skit and were half way through the song "Vote".

This possibly wasn't the best point to walk in. I am afraid there was much cringing at off keyness and bum notes. This would continue throughout all the musical numbers - those singing were clearly not awful singers, but were obviously in need of monitors. Some of the musical numbers were very witty, lyrically, but the swinging about the tune without ever actually hitting it robbed the musical numbers of any enjoyment they might have held for me.

Far better were a lot of the spoken sketches. I particularly liked Training Session, which riffed on the various training styles of various factions within the party (the leader's office, campaign for gender balance, and leaflet delivery training) with a huge dollop of innuendo (inexperienced activists may get their fingers caught in the flaps....) and Ming's Memoirs (which is available online at Liberal England). God's Gift was also distinctly amusing.

Rather less impressive was the "hilarious" "northern" comic Nobby Shuttleworth. I was assured that this was funny because it was doing politically incorrect jokes in a room full of Liberals, but I dunno... Perpetuating tired old clichés about all Yorkshire folk being fat ignorant misogynists didn't strike me as pushing any envelopes, particularly when done by someone who kept slipping back into his natural posh southern accent. Frankly, I found him fucking offensive, if you'll pardon the mildly ironic turn of phrase, and came quite close to demanding my money back because of him. But perhaps I was just being a bit touchy after having had the piss taken out of me all day by a variety of posh southerners - the most notable of which being the one who said that my "I'm 4 Ros" video would need subtitles so that people could understand what I was saying...

Anyway, one regrettable lowlight, three rather good highlights, and a whole bunch of mediocre-to-good. I'd say it was probably worth going, but not worth a tenner a ticket.