Welcome to this, the first Lib Dem ‘Top of the Blogs’. The idea is simple enough. Each week, we’ll list the top postings which have appeared on the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator during the previous seven days. And then I’ll hand-pick another five you might have otherwise missed to showcase the diversity of talent within the Lib Dem blogosphere.

So, without further ado, and in order of popularity…

1. ‘Susanne Lamido’ from Rob Fenwick’s ‘Posh Sounding Northumbrian’ blog. I’m making no comment on this one.
2. ‘Liberal Surge in Polls’ from Alex Wilcock’s ‘Love and Liberty’ blog. I don’t think it was the reference to Germany’s FPD which got this posting such attention… The first of a number referencing this week’s meeting of the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee (FPC).
3. ‘Trident…….Loos Rule and what really happened at FPC’ from Linda Jack’s ‘Lindyloo’s Muze’ blog. Picking up where Alex left off…
4. ‘SNP: Lib Dems should apologise for stating the bleeding obvious’ from James Graham’s ‘Quaequam Blog!’ blog. Liberalism and nationalism are polar opposites.
5. ‘Minister quits in glamour model scandal’ from Matt Davies’s eponymous blog. Who can resist a link to a story which connects the Bahamas, Anna Nicole Smith and an immigration minister?
6. ‘Ming Campbell in a hung parliament’ from Jonathan Calder’s ‘Liberal England’ blog. Will Ming’s friendship with the Scottish Labour establishment influence his post-election instincts?
7. ‘FPC, Chatham House Rules and whether the Parliamentary Party are pulling a fast one on Trident’ from Linda Jack again. Who’d have thought the FPC would prove so blog-worthy?

And another five well worth a look:

8. ‘Opinion: The Guardian poll – should we be worried?’ by Rob Fenwick on Lib Dem Voice. The answer is: yes… and no.
9. ‘Dangerous behaviour’ by Andy Mayer on his trenchant, eponymous blog. The ramifications of a simple mistake.
10. ‘BBC bias?’ by Nich Starling on the ‘Norfolk Blogger’ blog. Pro-Tory bias on the Beeb – what will 18 Doughty Street say?
11. ‘Control orders: Labour break their word, again’ from Lynne Featherstone’s ‘Parliament and Haringey Diary’ blog. Highlighting the Lib Dems’ opposition to Labour’s continuing policy of control orders – or incarceration without trial.

(And, last but not least:)

12. ‘Echo reports my hit on the head’ from Ryan Cullen’s ‘Hapless Band of Staff and Regulars’ blog. A chorus of sympathy, please, in honour of the guru who keeps the Aggregator ticking.

* Stephen Tall blogs at ‘A Liberal Goes A Long Way’.