Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 454th 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 (3-9 April, 2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, 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. How happy should Lib Dems be with 16% local election vote share projection? by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Mark analyses the prediction by Rallings and Thrasher.

2. TNS poll shows Lib Dem support rising by Dawud Islam on LibDemHame.
A 2% rise for the party is not to be sneezed at.

3. How Conservatives canvassed for the 2015 General Election by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Their key message was right there in their script.

4. Fabulous praise for Caroline Pidgeon from the Evening Standard by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Interesting that some of it comes from her opponents.

5. The Lib Dem team for the Liverpool local elections by Richard Kemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?
And it’s more diverse than you would think from the photo.

6. Did the Lib Dems hold back the worst excesses of the Tories? by Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus.
An unqualified yes.

7. How to win a marginal seat – Gavin Barwell’s story by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Particularly interesting section on the importance of face to face contact with the voters.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected]. You can also contact us via Twitter, where we’re @libdemvoice

8. For any woman who thinks politicians isn’t for them by Elaine Bagshaw on Medium.com.
Some compelling reasons why they should make sure their voices are heard.

9. Crass Tories to cut Business department despite steel crisis by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Apparently 40% staffing cuts are planned.

10. Tales from the campaign trail – what matters to the people of Ceredigion by Liz Evans on Tales from the Campaign trail.
A campaign video from Liz – what has disappointed local residents?

11. Selling our enemies the rope to hang us by Cicero on Cicero’s Songs.
Two aspects of the Panama Papers scandal that the media hasn’t picked up on.

12. Liberal Youth Conference preview – the big motions by various on LY Libertine.
The Young Liberals are coming back!

Your bonus this week comes from Mark Valladares on his sojourn to the Highlands,  especially as he was so nice about my dog.

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

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<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-lib-dem-golden-dozen-454-50115.html"><img src="https://www.libdemvoice.org/images/golden-dozen.png" width="200" height="57" alt="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" title="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" /></a>

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social