Welcome to the 18th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17th – 23rd June), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Down to business…

1. ‘Lib Dems to join Brown cabinet?’ by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice.
Reporting on the first reports.

2. ‘Deny everything, Baldrick’ on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog! blog.
The lesson we should draw: don’t get distracted by coalition talk.

3. ‘What should Ming have done?’ on (ahem) Stephen Tall’s A Liberal Goes A Long Way’ blog.
Might Team Brown’s mischievous leaking prove to be an own goal?

4. ‘Paddy offered Ireland; Turned it down’ by Richard Huzzey on Lib Dem Voice.
Further reporting of later reports.

5. ‘Ed Davey slams Guardian smears’ by Richard Huzzey on Lib Dem Voice.
An unequivocal instant response from Ming’s chief-of-staff.

6. ‘Lib Dems in the new Brown Government?’ on Steve Webb MP’s The Webb Log blog.
“We will be fighting the next election as an independent political party, seeking a mandate to govern the country, and that is as it should be.”

7. ‘A good week to be a Liberal Democrat’ on Duncan Borrowman’s blog.
An upbeat assessment of the last week’s coverage.

My five personal choices deliberately eschew this week’s Ming/Gordon discussions. You can find a selection of bloggers’ thoughts here.

And now for something completely different…

8. ‘Iain Dale: every sperm is sacred’ on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog! blog.
When does a foetus become a baby? And when does a statistic become a distortion?

9. ‘Can Dave pull it off?’ on Jeremy Hargreaves’ blog.
Blair was never a socialist; Cameron is clearly a Tory. So how will he convince the public his party’s changed?

10. ‘Hitchin’ My Star’ on Paul Evans’ Hot Ginger and Dynamite blog.
Some fan-mail for Christopher Hitchens’ appearance on the BBC’s Question Time. Jo Hayes also blogged her thoughts about this edition here.

11. ‘A week for decisions’ on Peter Black AM’s blog.
A preview of the climax of the Welsh Assembly negotiations.

12. ‘At forty I’ve only ever known Tony Blair too’ at Jock Coats’ Jock’s Place blog.
A thoughtful good riddance to our soon-to-be-ex-PM.

That’s it for another week folks. I wonder if anything of interest will be likely to happen in the world of politics in the next seven days?

* Stephen Tall blogs at ‘A Liberal Goes A Long Way’.

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