There's a wonderful scene at the start of the hour-long farewell special for Smashy and Nicey, the fictional Radio Fab DJs whose out-of-date witterings enlightened TV in the early 1990s.

Realising their time at the station is about to end, the pair barrel along the corridors – pushing Fluff Freeman out of the way as they go – trying to get to the room where the media have been summoned to learn their fate.

Meanwhile, Radio Fab’s overweight controller wheezes his way to the press conference from the other direction.

The three men burst through the doors at the same moment.

“We resign!” yell Smashy and Nicey to the assembled hacks. “They’re fired!” shouts the controller at the same moment.

The scene came into my head this week when I read that the prominent Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather has decided to stand down at the next election.

Sick to her stomach with the party’s stance on immigration, disillusioned with Nick Clegg’s leadership etc, etc. All genuine feelings, I’m quite sure.

But the power of Ms Teather’s “I resign!” exclamation is undermined when you look at her majority at the last General Election.

She held Brent Central three years ago by just 1,345 votes.

It’s fair to suppose that the good people of that particular London constituency would have yelled “you’re fired!” at their MP in 2015 if she hadn’t shouted “I resign!” first.

Any Lib Dem with a majority of 5,000 or fewer would do well to follow Ms Teather’s lead and decide now that standing at the next General Election is not for them.

Regardless of their views on immigration or Nick Clegg, it’s time for them to start printing out some new business cards and getting their LinkedIn profiles in order.