Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 257th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (15-21 January, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. Chris Davies slams fellow Lib Dem MEP Wallis over her shock resignation by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
Caron rounds up the reactions.

2. Newcomen Ward residents show their contempt for Labour’s obnoxious smearmongering on Chris Abbott’s blog.
“No more Labour leaflets” signs in residents’ windows.

3. The best kept secret in the Liberal Democrats on Mark Pack’s blog.
The concessions Liberal Democrat peers have been securing in the House of Lords over welfare reform.

4. Fitzsimmons defends Israel’s lebensraum by David Grace on Disgruntled Radical.
“Lorna Fitzsimmons condemns Nick Clegg for describing Israeli settlement building as “a deliberate act of vandalism”.”

5. Chris Davies is still very angry with Diana Wallis by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
“I would probably have preferred that the arguing had taken place behind closed doors,” says Caron.

6. The real problem the Liberal Democrats have with gender balance by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
“Very little progress will be made on gender balance if our energies are directed only towards aspiring politicians rather than in defending the seats of the most vulnerable incumbents,” says Andrew.

7. Wohoo – Tim Farron comes out fighting… by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
On the party President’s latest missile missive.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. These are normally chosen using the LibDig bookmarking website for party members, the site where you can highlight blog-posts you want to share with your fellow Lib Dems. Remember, though, you’re still more than welcome to nominate for the Golden Dozen a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s – using the steam-powered method of e-mail … all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected].

8. Why Charlotte Henry’s purity test of “real” liberalism is misguided by James Graham on Quaequam Blog!
“Features a good quick history lesson on who the factions really were.” (Submitted by markpack via LibDig.)

9. Why Zoe Williams’ tale of Tesco subsidies only tells half the story by James Graham on Quaequam Blog!
“Why raising the personal tax allowance is both a liberal and socially just policy.” (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig.)

10. Ballsed up – Labour’s economic narrative implodes by Matthew Green on Thinking Liberal.
“Matthew Green gives a brilliantly fair-minded account of how Labour’s economic narrative has unravelled.” (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig.)

11. SNP MP claims to be an Unionist by Stephen Glenn on Stephen’s Liberal Journal.
“Stephen caputres an SNP attempt to baffle a NI Unionist as to which ‘union’ he is discussing in light of independence for Scotland.” (Submitted by Stephen Glenn via LibDig.)

12. Elton John and David Furnish: Ridiculous Mail story by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
The bit that takes the biscuit is: “Lady John (as he’d be called if he was a woman)”

And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading ‘n’ nominating.

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