Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #106

Welcome to the (belated 😳 ) 106th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22nd-28th February 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

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

1. Paddy whups James Graham’s ass on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog.
The debate sparked by James’s original LDV article – and vigorously refuted by Paddy Ashdown – is still raging.

2. On that Liberator editorial on Andy Strange’s Process Guy blog.
Another debate continuing to rage: ‘where Liberator are right, is that the party sits firmly within the social liberal tradition. … attempts to move us away from our core social liberal values should be resisted.’

3. Welcome to my new colleagues – and why Lewisham Labour should be ashamed of themselves on Brian Robson’s blog.
For fighting a local election as a “referendum on getting our flag over the town hall and sending a message to the softies who are ashamed of our union jack”. (Is that the sound of Keir Hardie spinning…?)

4. ConHome: ‘Tories ponder “generous outreach to Lib Dems”‘ Love-bomb or genuine? on Lib Dem Voice.
It was a rhetorical question, clearly.

5. LibDems take control of Bristol City Council on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog.
Congratulations and best wishes to Barbara Janke and her Bristol Lib Dem colleagues. Minority control today, a majority in a few months’ time?

6. New poll: Lib Dems up, Tories down, Labour down on Julian H’s Orange By Name blog.
Up 2%, or down 4% – the choice is yours. And that’s the joy of polls.

7. Polls Show Encouraging Signs For Lib Dems on Jamie Saddler’s blog.
And that’s the joy of polls.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. As is now traditional we’re using the LibDig widget to select some of the posts from the seven days in question which you’ve most ‘dug’. But, remember, if you want to highlight 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 me a line at [email protected] (providing the web-link and author, and any tagline comment you care to have published).

8. Jack Straw is a Corrupt Lying Git on Northamptonshire Liberal Youth’s blog.
“I thought I’d go with “Jack Straw Refuses to Release Iraq War Minutes”, but decided on this more measured title to the post, in order to better convey my feelings on the subject with the absolute minimum of ambiguity.” (Nominated by (sigh) bumcheekcity via LibDig).

9. Islington Labour stands for high Council Tax – once again on Jeremy Hargreaves’ blog.
“A thoughtful response to this week’s hot topic in Islington. Will Labour regret their budget victory? I know Islington residents will….” (Nominated by Bridget Fox via LibDig).

10. Not so equal pay at Cambridge University on Lynne Featherstone’s Parliament and Haringey Diary blog.
“How Cambridge University pays men more than women.” (Submitted by markpack via LibDig).

11. Give Us Post Office Privatisation – Or Not – But Not Yet? on Alex Wilcock’s Love and Liberty.
How Labour’s plans to turn a state monopoly into a private monopoly show they don’t understand the merits of competition or decentralisation.

12. Social liberals a-go-go on Neil Stockley’s blog.
Perhaps the best (ie, the one I agree with most) article analysing the Social Liberal Forum, welcoming its contribution to party thinking and issuing some constructive challenges.

That’s it for another week. Happy blogging, especially y’all in Harrogate.

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