Stephen Tall’s post last week on Liberal Democrat Voice – Lib Dem tax policy: the media’s starting to listen, so now will the public get to hear about it? – highlighted how the media are increasingly rating our approach – and Vince Cable’s in particular – to economic issues.

As ever with Stephen, the post was full of good points and insight, but I think a key point was missed when he said that the reason for this not translating yet into higher support for the party is in part due to "anti-Lib Dem media bias and external factors beyond our control."

Well yes – both are factors. But as a liberal, one of the key parts of my beliefs is in the power of all of us to take power into our own hands – and bring about change.

So we shouldn’t just rail against "external factors against our control" – but instead look to what we can all do. Our party’s MPs – including myself – have a responsibility with the opportunities we are offered or can make – but the party is about far more than just the Parliamentarians. So I’ve mentioned four simple things below that anyone can do – and I’m sure you can think of others too.

The thread that joins them all together is this – if you see something you don’t like, you can do something about. You don’t have to just moan, or find reasons to self-flagellate and blame it all on someone else in the party who must be getting something wrong or not doing something. Instead – ask, "what can I do about it?" So act away!

Write to your local newspaper:

The letters page of is usually one of most keenly read section of a paper – and people who read them are more likely to vote than average. Most local newspapers are only rarely over-run with good letters to choose from, so your chance of getting published is often very high.

Link to our Economic Recovery plan from your website/blog:

The party’s website has a page setting out a summary of our economic policies – and also linking through to more detailed information for those who want to know more: www.libdems.org.uk/recoveryplan

In truth – not many people sit down at their computer thinking "I think I’ll go and look up what a political party is saying today." But you can help bring more people to read our recovery plan by linking to it from your own website/blog – some people will follow your link, and more links makes the page come out better in Google search engine results – bringing more people in that way too. Win, win!

Share our Economic Recover plan on social networking sites:

Do you use Facebook or Twitter or MySpace or Delicious or LibDig or Digg or any one of the myriad of other social networking sites? If you do – then you’ve got a – potential – audience waiting in front of you. What a shame if you don’t let them know about our Economic Recovery plan!

Like with adding a link from your website – it may not seem a huge publicity step on its own, but added up across lots of us – it has a real effect. Many people all doing their little bid all adds up and amplifies.

Comment on newspaper websites:

Just as sharing our pages on social networking sites brings our message to other people, taking our message to newspaper websites does the same. The major newspaper websites are some of the most popular sources of online political news in the country – often leaving the most popular political blogs trailing. Again that’s an opportunity for us – to take our message out to a wider audience, rather than to complain about other people not doing it for us. So go ahead – comment away…

This article first appeared on Liberal Democrat Voice.

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2008