TIM Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, is MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, in Cumbria, which doesn't quite border Scotland but is served by ITV Border television.

Last week he took a break from watching Scottish politics on telly and paid his colleagues at Holyrood a first visit since succeeding Nick Clegg.

The former deputy prime minister's fate was sealed by his party's worse-than-dismal performance in the General Election. He brought 57 Lib Dems MPs to the coalition party in 2010 but bequeathed a complement of just eight to Mr Farron, a collapse even worse than Scottish Labour who 'only' shed 40 seats.

If the Liberals need an optimist in charge after a drubbing like that, Mr Farron is the man.

Sitting down with the Holyrood press corps in an Edinburgh bar, the former lecturer, committed Christian and father of four was relentlessly, almost supernaturally upbeat.

Affable and down-to-earth, he seemed to enjoy sparring with the hacks.

He chatted frankly about the court action to oust Alistair Carmichael, now the Lib Dems' sole Scottish MP, from his Orkney and Shetland seat, and he talked about Danny Alexander's possible return to frontline politics after his election defeat in Inverness.

The reason for his visit, incidentally, was to meet Scottish refugee organisations and discuss ways to support migrants arriving in Britain via Calais but the questions he faced were all about his party's personalities and its plight.

On that, his pitch was simple: times are tough but opportunities do exist.

He argued there was "massive space" for a compassionate, liberal party occupying the centre ground.

In Scotland, he believes the Liberals offer a clear alternative to what he sees as an illiberal, centralising SNP government.

A moderate, centrist party should appeal all the more, he suggested, as the Tories shift to the right and Labour and the Nationalists edge each other ever left-wards.

There might be some truth in all that.

But it's a bit like saying there is a"massive space" for a party that vowed to protect people from space aliens, simply because no-one else is making the same promise.

The Lib Dems' positioning isn't the problem, it's the brand. If Scottish Labour are paying a heavy price for joining forces with the toxic Tories in the pro-UK Better Together campaign, you don't need to phone John Curtice to figure out what governing with the Conservatives has done to the Lib Dems.

But if you did, I'm sure he'd refer you to the most recent poll from TNS. You know, the one that put support for the SNP at 62 per cent for the constituency vote in next May's Holyrood election.

In a word, it's as grim for the Lib Dem.Willie Rennie's party was on three per cent (down two points since the previous poll) in the constituency vote and four per cent (down one) in the regional ballot.

On that showing, they could expect to win just two seats, down from the five they hold at present.

The energetic Mr Farron says he will go chapping doors personally in Shetland, the Lib Dems's safest seat in Scotland. You can't fault his determination but it will take more than that to save his party.