Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 179th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (18th – 24th July, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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. Chris Rennard and the Electoral Reform Society on Alex Folkes’ A Lanson Boy.
There’s no truth in the rumour.

2. Did you vote Lib Dem to help the Tories dismantle the BBC and the NHS? on Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger.
What might be termed a leading question.

3. “Judas”: Liberal Democrat passions run deep in Scunthorpe on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England.
Which reminds me of one of my favourite I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue jokes: “Nottingham is a fine city with a fascinating history. It’s well documented in official records that the city’s original name was ‘Snottingham’, or ‘Home of Snots’, but when the Normans came, they couldn’t pronounce the letter ‘S’, so decreed the town be called ‘Nottingham’ or the ‘Home of Notts’. It’s easy to understand why this change was resisted so fiercely by the people of Scunthorpe.”

4. Decisive LibDem victories over the Tories in Thatcham on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings.
A headline to savour.

5. Note to Lib Dem Parliamentarians: We Are Not Stupid. Please stop treating us like we are. on Jennie Rigg’s Nobody’s Token Woman.
Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert’s defence of the coalition lands him in hot water.

6. Lib Dem MP Tim Farron attacks ‘toxic Tories’ on James’s Pretendy Liberal.
Toxic shock syndrome: “a very rare but potentially fatal illness,” Wikipedia informs me.

7. By-election results: Victory in Torbay and holds everywhere else on Helen Duffett’s blog.
A round-up of a good week for the party, especially in Lib Dem-Tory marginal Torbay.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. These are normally chosen using the LibDig bookmarking website for party members, the site where you can highlight blog-posts you want to share with your fellow Lib Dems. Remember, though, you’re still more than welcome to nominate for the Golden Dozen 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].

8. It’s Okay To Be Homophobic If You’re Gay!! (says Daily Mail) on Jae Kay’s Neue Politik.
“It is of course never okay to bully people the way that the Daily Mail pays writers to. It’s a great thing we’ve got Jaekay around to shame them.” (Submitted by Steph Ashley via LibDig).

9. London Democrats on the pseudonymous Jazz Hands, Serious Business.
“Why the Liberal Democrats need to engage our members outside London.” (Submitted y dave.page via LibDig).

10. Tories Disrespect Vince By Repeating What He Said Last Week on Andy Hinton’s Wouldn’t it be scarier.
“Andy succeeds in doing something paid journalists failed to do: listening to what Vince Cable actually said.” (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig).

11. How many filthy bottoms have you wiped today, Mr Coleman? on Sara Bedford’s Always win when you’re singing.
“Sara succinctly and emphatically reminds a councillor whinging about his workload that there are others much worse off than him.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

12. Question Time Fail Deja Vu – Nigel Farage on AGAIN and no Lib Dem #bbcqt on Caron Lindsay’s Caron’s Musings.
“The description’s in the story; a day after Nick Clegg’s historic (D)PMQs, it’s two weeks on the bounce that there’s been no Lib Dem representative on QT. Caron has the gory details.” (Submitted by burkesworks via LibDig).

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

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