Welcome to the 152nd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10th – 16th 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 resigns over blog comments on Lib Dem Voice.
Rough justice? Or just desserts? Read Greg Stone’s own contribution to the comments thread here.

2. The Withers LLP email to John Hemming on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England blog.
Prepare to be intimidated.

3. Labour minister in Lib Dem electoral fraud smear by Iain Roberts on Lib Dem Voice.
The juvenile smear-machine that is Nick Brown.

4. Leaving the Lib Dems…. on Darrell Goodliffe’s Moments of Clarity blog.
Darrell’s valedictory post as a Lib Dem: “Labour still has something to contribute to the progressive struggle and in that spirit I intend to join it as a critical ally who supports its struggles”.

5. Elaine Bagshaw resigns as Chair of Liberal Youth on Lib Dem Voice.
Another farewell (and it wasn’t the last).

6. Liberal Youth Resignations on Christopher Lovell’s blog.
The aftermath.

7. A vacancy at Liberal Youth as Chair resigns… on Mark Valladares’ Liberal Bureaucracy blog.
A fitting note to conclude this batch of posts: “I have to say that my personal dealings with Elaine have always been courteous and professional, and I hope that she has felt rewarded in some way by her tenure as Chair of Liberal Youth.”

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. The Contented Little Citizen Book? Clegg’s approach to parenting on Helen Duffett’s Liberate, Innovate, Communicate blog.
“The rearing secrets of the Duffetts revealed! Good little article about how nobody knows anything about raising children and shouldn’t pretend to.” (Submitted by james.graham via LibDig).

9. Why most asylum seekers are genuine on Peter Black AM’s blog.
“Peter Black reports the results of a Swansea University study, which shows that three quarters of the asylum seekers studied “had no knowledge of welfare benefits and support before coming to the UK”. If that’s the case then making our policy even more draconian is hardly going to deter many immigrants, and will simply penalise the most vulnerable.” (Submitted by Niklas Smith via LibDig).

10. Should we kick a politician when they are down? on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog.
On the ridicule aimed at Iris Robinson: “there seems to be more satisfaction for the soul to be sympathetic to someone, even if (and perhaps because) they haven’t come across as particularly sympathetic to others in the past. – Occupying a sort of moral higher ground, if you like. Carrying on and on with schadenfreude tends to sully or debase the humanity of the person dishing it out” (Submitted by paulwalteruk via LibDig).

11. Why schools were closed on David Boyle’s The Real Blog.
Snow, schools and public liability: “We are witnessing, not the elimination of risk (that’s impossible), but the privatisation of it.” (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig).

12. The Implosion of British Power on James Oates’ Cicero’s Songs.
“An interesting account of Britain’s image amongst international foreign policy types. It’s not pretty.” (Submitted by achinton via LibDig).

And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading.

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