When I sit down and draw up my New Year Resolutions I always think of St Augustine and his prayer “Oh Lord make me Chaste, but not yet”. Resolutions can be affirmative but more often than not we use them to try and break long term habits we don’t like. Even if we don’t last much past January 10th.

As Britain is awash with new gym memberships, nicotine patches and soon abandoned Diets over the next few weeks, are there any long term bad habits the Liberal Democrats could do with breaking? Here are my five suggestions for a fitter, leaner 2008 for the party. However I suspect some are as unlikely as me giving up chips.

1. Give up Leadership Elections. Anyone who thinks these can’t become addictive only needs look at the Conservative Party. As a Chris Huhne voter I must say we have no Plan B. While I don’t seriously expect Nick Clegg to be pushed under a bus, if we don’t miraculously recover in the polls muttering might start . If so it needs to stopped very quickly. The party has big strategic challenges to face up to and we can’t keep sacrificing leaders like Goats to make the rains come back.

2. Lets talk about the “N” word. 2007’s Yo Yo-ing poll rating shows the party relies not so much on the oxygen, but the oxygen tent of publicity. I still argue that our plunging this year to only 11% in some polls wasn’t Ming Campbell’s fault. It was just no one was reminded we exist for 5 months. I think Nick Clegg might be onto something when he says that Britain is a liberal country where people aren’t yet voting Liberal Democrat. Liberal is an attractive word without much of the baggage or dating of Labour or Conservative. However the real word we need to bother about is “narrative”. Until we have a cogent one we will always slump when we aren’t in the news.

3. Follow Liberalism through to its Conclusions . Its not often said in public but sometimes civil servants are incompetent and they cock up. I have lost count of the times a Lib Dem spokesperson pops up on TV demanding a resignation of a Minister or blaming the Labour government for a dirty hospital, local shortage of Teachers or the failings of transparently local Policing. Of course sometimes there are symptoms of national policies. On lots of occasions though its just that a well paid Chief Executive isn’t upto the job. However they are safe in the knowledge that our centralised state and political blame culture means that no one locally will ever be held to account. One reason all Governments tend to centralise is that they know they are going to get the blame for local failures. Perhaps in 2008 we could begin to identify local decision makers, point out how much they are often paid and ask why no one has ever heard of them or that they are always un elected? The culture shock might do more good for public service than the 1001 central targets we impose but never enforce.

4. Innovate in Local Government , not just opportunism. My sense is the party is now incredibly effective at removing other people from power locally. However with our Principal Councillor tally stuck in the mid 4000’s we aren’t always good at staying in power when we get it . The crippling demands of community politics and the not unhealthy in its self parochialism it nurtures can have difficult side effects. No one has yet to explain to me the inordinate amount of time and money spent vetting Parliamentary candidates often for the most bleak of black hole seats and yet we allow people to become Leaders of Councils often quite by accident. 2008 is the year we should make substantial training for senior Councillors Mandatory. I’d go as far as wanting an externally validated diploma of Local Government Leadership. The best Liberal Democrat-run Councils have superb records through innovation. The worst just carry on the opportunism of opposition when the other lot have been booted out.

5. Overhaul communications to members. Take the Annual members mailings from blue chip charities like Oxfam, Amnesty International or the RSPB then compare it to the stuff we end our members. Then weep. What charities are very good at is linking small donations or actions to real outcomes. I have some thing in mind like the by-election style “Buzz” magazine but with human interest stories showing practical out workings of local and national achievements.