Welcome to the 146th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th – 12th December 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, you can now 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. Top Three Lib Dem Gains on Christopher Lovell’s blog.
Four to watch on election night.

2. Times: Tories “give up” on Cheadle with Lib Dems digging in for victory by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Why Mark Hunter’s been grinning like a Cheshire cat all week.

3. Armstrong and Millais on Alex Wilcock’s Love and Liberty blog.
Well cool, innit.

4. Tories give up on the Birkdale Focus blog.
Well, it’ll save them time.

5. BBC responds about dropping Jo Swinson from BBC Question Time #bbcqt on Mark Thopmson’s Mark Reckons blog.
Apparently the Beeb thinks the Lib Dems were part of the consensus on Iraq … rather suggests the Beeb are cluelessly ignorant.

6. Ashay Ghai wins Bearsden South by-election from Cameron’s Conservatives on Andrew Reeves’ Running blog.
A terrific result for the Lib Dems in Jo Swinson’s East Dunbartonshire seat.

7. Are the Tories creating clear Green water for the other parties to target? on Jon Ault’s Alter Ego blog.
Is Cameron’s rightward shift on the environment threatening the Tories’ advance in key seats?

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 a line to [email protected] (providing the web-link and author, and any tagline comment you care to have published).

8. Dear Britain, on James Oates’ Cicero’s Songs blog.
“Wonderful, heartfelt post. Also, despite the counsels of despair, oddly stirring.” (Submitted by Alix via LibDig).

9. Liberal Vision bemoan a lack of a debate on Giles Wilkes’ Freethinking Economist blog.
“Good post on how climate change sceptics try and present two sides to a debate where there is only really one.” (Submitted by scmjerram via LibDig).

10. Interview with Esther Rantzen, independent candidate for Luton South on Mark Thompson’s Mark Reckons blog.
The low down with Esther … and not an unusually shaped vegetable in sight.

11. What does Glenda Jackson do? by Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice.
Lib Dem candidate for Hampstead & Kilburn Ed Fordham poses the question.

12. Why the Conservatives have been making class an issue on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog!
‘I await the day before Pickles starts one of his war room briefings with an establishing shot of him showing his prize pet ferret around CCHQ, with all the bright young things around him cooing and stroking the creature. It is only a matter of time, trust me on this.’

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

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