Consult Google on 2007 predictions and the first entry informs you that This is the first of 3 'quiet' years which may give us a chance to get organized before 2010.

This seems a reasonable prediction (I think this Parliament is likely to go the whole way) although we are soon into Lembit territory: It may not be 'business as usual' as there may be serious problems in the world if there is a comet impact in 2006; we can't expect to know everything in advance and there may be some surprises too."

So assuming the comet does not strike, what might we see?

Some things are near certain. Brown will replace Blair, reshape the cabinet, and get a substantial bounce. He probably won't call a General Election (if only because the Labour Party is bust). But he will be tempted.

The sale of seats in the House of Lords and in the Palace of Westminster dining rooms will continue to make the headlines. Put this together, and there is a greater chance of substantial reform of the House of Lords, and controls over the financing and spending of political parties than there has been for years. We will need to seize this opportunity.

Nicol Stephen believes we will do very well in Scotland in May. I hope he is right. We are defending an enormous number of seats in local elections in May next year. Not every Liberal Democrat run council is fantastically popular, and the local elections are going to be challenging.

The suggestion that there will be a major campaign for a < a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1980571,00.html">Bill of Rights is interesting and encouraging. Personally I would like to see some of the younger MPs playing a prominent role in this.

The party will need to be more gimmicky in 2007, to continue repositioning, and to project a team image. Norman Lamb's media skills should mean that we have a higher profile on the NHS. His experience in questioning PFI deals is going to be an asset.

Some navel gazing is also required. We should slim down our conference - or decide to have more debates that simply condemn government failures rather than try to solve the problem (the hospital nutrition debate is case in point). And decisions on policy (and more internal elections) should be opened up to the membership as a whole.

Internationally, John Simpson has some credible predictions: more chaos in Iraq, greater tensions with Iran, perhaps some moves to replace Kyoto with something tougher, that involves India and China making commitments. We'll be worrying about energy and the Russians too.

Happy New Year!