Welcome to the Golden Dozen, as we enter our (scary, but true) fourth year … Yes, this is the 156th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7th – 13th February 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. FT: Tories face “tough battle” to oust Chris Huhne in Eastleigh by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Few pick a fight with Chris and win.

2. The 14 non-Lib Dem MPs who backed the Single Transferable Vote by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Only 249 more MPs to convince, and we’ll get a majority for STV.

3. +++ Exclusive general election prediction: too close to call by Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice.
The academic analysis which suggest Labour might remain the largest party in the Commons.

4. In Praise of Jenny Tonge on Linda Jack’s Lindylooz Muze.
“Frankly, in my view, Nick has totally over reacted, which is disappointing given his unblemished and brave record of standing up to the Israeli lobby.”

5. Clegg sacks Jenny Tonge on Lib Dem Voice.
And a vigorous comments thread ensues …

6. Majority of Lib Dem members expect party to make general election gains by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
52% of you are in bullish mood.

7. Green Blogger Joins Lib Dems on Stephen Glenn’s Linlithgow Journal.
A warm Valentine’s welcome to Kristofer Keane.

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. STV is beautiful on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog!
“We all know it’s fair and gives voters most choice, but James shows how STV is pretty too.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

9. The Politics of Showering on Stephen Glenn’s Linlithgow Journal.
“Stephen shares his locker room experiences in the light of a typically bigoted e-mail from US homophobes.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

10. Senior SNP Glasgow Councillor Alex Dingwall defects to the Liberal Democrats on Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog.
“SNP wheels are coming off as a senior councillor defects to the Lib Dems.” (Submitted by andrew.reeves via LibDig).

11. Lies, damned lies and Tory mis-stating of opinion polls on Sara Bedford’s Always win when you’re singing blog.
“Sara Bedford, highlighting an important omission by ConHome when reporting on Lab-Con marginals.” (Submitted by MarkThompson via LibDig).

12. Robin Hood Tax? Beware the men in tights by James Graham on the Social Liberal Forum blog.
“The Social Liberal Forum blog is back, with an excellent post explaining why the proposed financial transaction tax is a bad idea from a liberal perspective. (Oh, and a funny title!)” (Submitted by Niklas Smith via LibDig).

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

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<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-golden-dozen-156-17960.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>