Welcome to the 53rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17th-23rd February), together with a quintet hand-picked by Lib Dem blog readers you might otherwise have missed.

Here we go, in descending order of popularity:

1. Clegg: You may think I’m soft but I’m hard, damned hard on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England blog.
Is Nick putting toughness before wisdom with his seeming willingness to sack David Heath if he votes for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?

2. Bermondsey revisited (again) on Iain Sharpe’s Eaten By Missionaries blog.
Setting the record straight.

3. Celebrating in the Cowley St Campaigns Dept – exclusive photos on Jonathan Wallace’s blog.
No-one does photo-features quote like Jonathan “Hello’s my middle name” Wallace.

4. Tories lose control of Southampton; Lib Dem defection in Middlesbrough on Lib Dem Voice.
Yes, it had the word defection in the title – so it was bound to get into the top seven.

5. Lib Dems stay strong in latest poll (and something about economic confidence) on Gavin Whenman’s Gaily Gigest glog.
This is why we Lib Dems like ICM polls best.

6. Alistair Darling on Today: Shattered Credibility and An Incredible Interview on Alex Wilcock’s Love and Liberty blog.
Though, in fairness, Alastair’s darling quote is a little more multi-dimensional than John Humphreys (or Nick Robinson) gave credit.

7. It may seem a strange thing to say but …. on Robert Shaw’s The Willow Man blog.
Yes, the Campaign for Gender Balance blog awards is just days away…

And now to the five slots we reserve under the category ‘well worth reading even if they didn’t get the most clicks this week’. Thanks to all those who submitted nominations, and apologies to those whose choices didn’t make it this week. Remember, all you have to do is drop me a line at [email protected], highlighting the best Lib Dem blog postings from the past week (providing the web-link and author, and any tagline comment you care to have published).

8. I Just Can’t Get You Out of My Head, Boyce Your Lovin’ Is All I Think About on Julian H’s Orange By Name blog.
“Maybe it’s just my pathetically immature sense of humour but I just can’t stop laughing about Julian’s “I am Clegg’s witness” line – and the gratuitous Laurence Boyce reference must be worth a nomination in its own right :o)” – so says Dominic Mathon.

9. Hard Work for Higher Purpose on Stephanie Kate Ashley’s Dib Lemming blog.
“It is an inspirational account of what it is to be a member of the Liberal Democrats and why others should join” – Peter Black AM.

10. The most articulate support for Obama I’ve seen on James Schneider’s Schneider’s Home blog.
“OK, so he didn’t have to write much, but Schneider is a genius at trawling through the web and finding cool things.” – Jonny Wright.

11. Labour unveils its Top 50 Achievements since 1997 on Meral Ece’s blog.
With a few ‘achievements’ which didn’t make it onto Gordon’s list (Nominated by Robert Shaw.)

12. Why don’t we all just publish all our personal data and 24 hour webcam on the internet? on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog.
A nomination from me for Paul as reward for all his other nominations this week – which you can happily find over at the Burbler’s blog.

And that’s it for another week… Happy blogging.

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