I am plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown . Paddy Ashdown wrote this following his election as Leader of the future Liberal Democrats in 1988. Faced with party infighting, the conflict with David Own and the SDP, and the brink of financial insolvency, Ashdown s future seemed doomed. However, by the time he ends The Ashdown Diaries following the 1997 election, he writes I am leading a party that is larger than Lloyd George s! The Ashdown Dia