Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 180th 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 (25th – 31st 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. Double by-election wins for B&NES Lib Dems on Nicholas Coombes’ blog.
Good news for the Lib Dems in the west country. See also 5., below.

2. Giving up on The Guardian on Jonathan Wallace’s blog.
Its anti-Lib Dem barracking has finally got too much for Jonathan.

3. Do I have as much at stake as some other Lib Dems? on Mark Thompson’s Mark Reckons.
A relative Lib Dem newbie’s angst at the prospect of any post-coalition collapse: “Those who have dedicated the majority of their lives to the cause will surely feel the loss more keenly than I?”

4. Coalition politics on Simon Goldie’s blog.
Are we witnessing a Whig revival?

5. Political Earthquake in North East Somerset on Paul Crossley’s blog.
See also 1., above.

6. The Poke – Daily Mail’s secret editorial formula revealed on Andrew Reeves’ Running blog.
Paul Dacre’s very own homophobic/misogynist/antediluvian/xenophobic version of Mornington Crescent.

7. Nick Clegg and U Turns on Mark Yeates’ …and one more thing!
Following Nick’s revelation that he believed in cuts even before the formation of the Coalition, the question is asked: “Why did the leader of the party fight on a policy he no longer believed in?”

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. No Labour, we did not sell our souls to the devil on Lisa Harding’s Spiderplant Land.
“Spidey gives Labour some very good advice. I doubt they’ll take it, but she’s right that they need to lose their sense of entitlement to power and start contributing properly to future policy debates.” (Submitted by caron via LibDig).

9. Labour Campaign for Deeper Cuts on Joe Otten’s Extra Bold.
“If your policy leads to a bigger debt than the other lot, the in the long run you are the attacker not the defender of public services.”

10. You know when Nick Clegg said that this was going to be the most radical, reforming government since 1911? on Steph Ashley’s Dib Lemming.
“Well, now I believe him. Wow,” says Steph.

11. Signal Boost: The Early Learning Centre continue their genderfail suckitude on Jennie Rigg’s miss_s_b.
Taking up cudgels against gender throwback stereotypes – and Caron Lindsay receives an ELC reply here.

12. Is Trident In Trouble? on The Futility Monster’s blog.
“Has Danny Alexander managed to persuade Osborne that, OK, we can’t cut Trident altogether, but can we at least do something – and give a credible, financial excuse – which forces the whole project to be reassessed?”

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

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