SAY the Lib Dems win outright control of Camden Council in May’s elections and get to run the borough for the next four years. And let’s assume no pesky Lib Dem councillor makes a leadership bid any time soon, what’s to stop Keith Moffitt chalking up eight years up as leader at the Town Hall?

And if he does eight years in the leader’s office, that would be three more than Jane Roberts served. Roberts was the Labour leader of Camden from 2000 to 2005 and was made a Dame for her services to local government. Hey, she even got invited to posh soirees at Chequers while leader of the council.

So will Keith one day be similarly recognised in the New Year’s Honours? His party has had to share power with the Conservatives in Camden since 2006, but he can lay claim to having been the leader of the council in 2008 when the Town Hall scooped the best marks from an Audit Commission inspection ever recorded by a local authority. Camden, that year, scored four stars, the maximum, in every discipline. Now, lots and lots of people think those fusty old, checkbox inspections fail to draw out what people really think about their local council, but they are highly thought of in the charts-and-graphs world of local government bureaucrats. They can lead to gongs.

Considered a mighty achievement, council workers were gifted an extra day’s holiday to celebrate the audit success. At  this time of year, it makes you think: Will they one day be raising a glass to Sir Keith?