Yay, we’ve reached a ton-and-a-half 🙂 … Welcome to the 150th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere – the first of this decade – featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th December 2009 – 2nd January 2010), 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. Lib Dem PPC Ed Fordham makes Observer’s 2010 Hot List on Lib Dem Voice.
Just 474 votes needed to turn this from prediction to reality.

2. The North West Leicestershire by-election should not be delayed on Mark Thompson’s Mark Reckons blog.
A needless expense, or a democratic fundamental? You decide.

3. The Lib Dem donor who’s “one of the most powerful men in the City” by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Profiling Paul Marshall: estimated worth, £200m.

4. My Predictions for 2010 on Mark Thompson’s Mark Reckons blog.
A minority Tory administration, and a smaller Lib Dem party, all within the next six months … says Mark.

5. LibDem MP gets own duck island on Sara Bedford’s Always win when you’re singing blog.
This season’s must have.

6. What if … the Greens do get their first MP? on Darrell Goodliffe’s Moments of Clarity blog.
What impact might Caroline Lucas’s possible success in Brighton Pavilion have on the Lib Dems’ vote?

7. Fall-out over Tory selection meeting in Oldham by Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice.
A happy story to usher in the New Year.

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 bookmarking website for party members 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. Is photography the new crime? on Andrew Reeves’ Running blog.
‘Over zealous police officers are stopping and searching innocent photgraphers under the Terrorism Act despite contrary advice given to them. Stop the police state!’ (Submitted by andrew.reeves via LibDig).

9. Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? on Alex Wilcock’s Love and Liberty blog.
‘A well deserved Fisking of Michael Howard’s ridiculous claim that he is the only serious politician to stand up to the BNP. Alex also reminds us that saying the right thing can help the Lib Dems win elections – we shouldn’t be ashamed of our principles.’ (Submitted by Niklas Smith via LibDig).

10. MPs keep their propaganda on taxpayers Peter Black AM’s blog.
‘Story about government u-turn on the use of the MPs Communications Allowance in 2010 onwards.’ (Submitted by andrew.reeves via LibDig).

11. One law for Gary McKinnon – another for Akmal Shaikh? on Sara Bedford’s Always win when you’re singing blog.
‘Sara on fine, hypocrisy-busting form:”Where is the fairness condemning the execution of one mentally ill British man in China, whilst sending a another similarly ill man to the other side of the world to face a death by a thousand mental cuts?”‘ (Submitted by helenduffett via LibDig).

12. Civil Partnership Should be Available to Hetrosexuals – A Response to Donal Blaney on Stephen Glenn’s Linlithgow Journal.
‘Stephen Glenn responds, from a Christian viewpoint, to right-wing blogger Donal Blaney’s reactionary remarks about gay marriage.’ (Submitted by burkesworks via LibDig).

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

Featured? Add this to your blog post!

<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-golden-dozen-150-17419.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>