AS mixed metaphors go, it was not a work of art but aptly summed up the impact of Ukip's seismic result.
Nigel Farage said the leaders of the main UK parties were "like goldfish that have just been tipped out of the bowl onto the floor, desperately gasping for air and clinging on to the comfort blanket that this is a protest vote".
The six-hour delay before a distraught looking Nick Clegg was able to get back into his political element and give a response to the Liberal Democrats' drubbing showed which leader was hurting the most.
He sought to defend the values of his party and the tough decision to get into bed with the Tories in the national interest and declared that just when its big decisions were being vindicated, "we're not going to buckle".
It took four hours for Vince Cable, who is on a trade trip to China, to insist there was no leadership issue. To change the pilot now would leave the LibDems in turmoil.
One party insider suggested the LibDems could lose a dozen or so of their seats at the General Election but, ironically, still emerge more powerful as a Coalition partner in 2015 to either the Tories or Labour.As for the other goldfish, David Cameron appeared the least oxygen deprived - he has the comfort of improving economic numbers.
Ed Miliband, who will be on the campaign trail in Essex today, perhaps has the most to worry about.
With less than a year to go before the General Election, his party is still only neck and neck with the Tories.
His pitch to try to wrest back the working class Labour voter who flirted with Ukip has to be carefully calibrated as it could alienate him from Middle England, where the 2015 election will be won and lost.
Mr Farage's people's army has moved on to the June 4 Newark by-election, where the Tories are defending a 16,000 majority.
The Ukip earthquake may rumble on but the question is whether it will stretch to the General Election and change Britain's political landscape for good.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article