Welcome to the 124th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (28th June – 4th July 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. Since when was being a PPC the be all and end all of anything? on Mark Valladares’ Liberal Bureaucracy blog.
‘Adherence to the totality of Liberal Democrat policy has never been a requirement.’ Thank God.

2. LibDems Trounce Tories in Sutton on Jonathan Fryer’s blog.
That’s a headline which deserves to be repeated: LibDems Trounce Tories in Sutton.

3. Greater Manchester Lib Dem PPC defects to Labour by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Why does no-one read my Good News stories?

4. 3rd Lib Dem leaflet in Norwich North on Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger blog.
Nich is keeping a close eye on the scores on the leaflet doors. Also see 6., below.

5. Three bell-weather by-elections? on John’s Liberal Revolution blog.
Good news for the Lib Dems in Manchester Withington, Cheadle and Sutton & Cheam.

6. 4th Lib Dem leaflet in Norwich North on Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger blog.
See 4., above.

7. When was the Lib Dems most successful by-election period? on ‘Costigan Quist’s’ Himmelgarten Cafe blog.
The answer? ‘… if we look at the proportion of by-elections won, it’s the 2001-2005 parliament that wins the prize. There were only six by-elections and we won two of them.’

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. Labour and Tory Internet strategies compared on ‘Costigan Quist’s’ Himmelgarten Cafe blog.
“… and a theory for a winning strategy for good measure.” (Submitted by lizw via LibDig).

9. The post-Rennard era on Alix Mortimer’s The People’s Republic of Mortimer blog.
“Alix replies to Costigan Quist’s post on Internet strategies: where’s the evidence to show what works?” (Submitted by lizw via LibDig).

10. A Parliament of Hacks on James Oates’s Cicero’s Songs blog.
“Cicero tells us exactly why a Parliament where MPs have outside jobs can be healthy – and warns against stuffing the Commons with loyal apparatchiks.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

11. WARNING! Reading this blog could make you fat. on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog!
“James sights his tactical nuclear array on the weight loss surgeon who slammed fatter celebs as bad role models and shows up some of the disgraceful links between the obesity crisis stories and the weight loss industry.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

12. Jack Straw is my darling on Alex Wilock’s Love and Liberty blog.
Here’s an exception to the Golden Dozen – a post that’s getting on for two years old, but is still (as nominator Lib Dem PPC Briget Fox notes) “topical and characteristically well-written”: ‘The Liberal Democrats have by a very long way the best record on supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality – including sticking our necks out back when doing so was a major political risk.’

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

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