I’ve written already about the contest to be the next President of the party, and as anyone who has read that piece will have gathered, I don’t naturally warm to the idea of an Opik presidency.

But before making the choice of how I vote, I would like to hear from the candidates what it is that they would propose to use the job actually to DO.

The formal powers of the party President are certainly not extensive. But it is an opportunity to put some things on the agenda, and take them forward within the party, and within parameters you can have an impact.

Different Presidents have approached it differently. And I certainly think they can be most effective by identifying just one or two main priorities as President. If you spend your two years in that position focussing on one or two big things, then I think you can really put them on the agenda and achieve some progress. Navnit Dholakia achieved this, simply by raising the profile of ethnic minorities within the party. He did this very effectively and I think it is what people remember his Presidency for.

Simon Hughes has approached the role differently - the positive thing that stands out to me most from Simon’s four years has been the way in which he has linked up different parts of the party with each other. The President has an ex officio place on most major party committees, and Simon has very actively engaged in them, and used the linkage which he in that role is able to provide, very positively.

The Bones Commission report seems to me to provide a timely opportunity for the candidates to set out their stall. The remit of its report is so wide that between its covers lie almost every issue that a President might want to take up.

So it would be good to know the candidates’ views on it. Do they support it? If there are some bits they don’t think are quite right, what are they? Which chapters or sections might they really want to take up as priorities?

In some ways its still early days for this election, but in effect it has already been running for a year. It’s time to hear some actual proposals from the candidates!