Are you sitting comfortably? It's the final chapter for the Storeyteller....

FASCINATING goings-on amongst the Lib Dims as the Fireman clings to power.

The Dancing Queen, Flo Clucas has been promoted to Deputy Lib Dim Leader as Bradley tries to shore-up his position in his last few weeks as Leader.

However, the price that Clucas demanded for coming to Bradley's aid was....the Storeyteller's head on a plate!

She refused to join the Fireman's Cabinet if Storey was kept on as Executive Member for Regeneration and Constant Self-Promotion.

So Bradley instantly sidelined his old mate - sugaring the bitter pill by giving him the job of being Mayor next year and with a few extra bob in his pocket (£6,000 to be precise, eds) for taking up the non-role of an Assistant Executive Member.

The Dancing Queen will show some nifty footwork if Bradley is disqualified from office and will, no doubt terribly reluctantly, quietly assume the mantle of Leaderene as the Lib Dims regroup and lick their wounds before being kicked out by the electorate in 2010.

However, at least Storey will now be able to fulfil his lifetime's ambition - dressing up in a funny costume every day and getting his picture taken.

That's if he first survives the Standards Board's blisteringly-speedy investigation which is expected to report sometime before the next Millennium (once they have counted all their pencils, made a brew and had a lie-down because of all the stress, eds).

But for the lame Storey the back benches now beckon - that's how a political career ends after 30-plus years, not with a bang, but a wimp.

What has also gone unremarked by the craven Echo is the astonishing dismissal of the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Wavertree, Colin Eldridge.

Bradley sacked him from the Cabinet and every other position he held after the two fell out spectacularly over the Mathew Street report.

Deep in his Municipal Buildings bunker, the Fireman also became increasingly paranoid that the lanky Eldridge - dubbed The Lurch by Sexy Rexy - was secretly plotting a come-back for Storey as Leader.So he had to go too.

The Eldridge dismissal is now likely to provoke all kinds of internal party trouble for the Fireman amongst the Lib Dims nationally, who will vainly try to spin it as 'Colin wanted to spend more time with his constituency.'

Of course, it is a huge slap in the face for Eldridge who was being wildly (correct spelling, eds) touted as the Lib Dim's best hope in Liverpool at the next General Election.

No doubt scores will be settled in the future.

Meanwhile the Fireman has carried on where he left off before Nadia Stewart threw him a lifeline - demonstrating his woeful lack of integrity, intelligence or judgement by giving the accused fireman Steve Hurst the job of Executive Member for Corporate Performance.

Hurst is in court in July accused of breaking election law.

What a performance!