Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 181st 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 (1st – 7th August, 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. Floella Benjamin to be Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor? on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England.
Will she get a chance to see of Bo-Jo? (One problem, surely her abbreviated name should be Flo-Be?)

2. If this is Left David Milliband lets have more of it.. by Iain Brodie Brown on Birkdale Focus.
Welcoming Mili-D’s apparent conversion to the Lib Dems’ mansion tax.

3. Conservative Council leader Councillor Kay Cutts snubs gay activist on Andrew Reeves’ Running blog.
Some of Kay Cutts’ best friends are of course gay … but none are Labour activists.

4. Lib Dems in the Thick of It on Stephen Glenn’s Linlithgow Journal.
Can’t quite see Peter Capaldi as Jonny Oates, but you never know.

5. Unbelievable! on Carl Minss’ Thoughts from Hull.
Take aback by some amazingly OTT police behaviour.

6. The Liberal Democrats get established on James Oates’s Cicero’s Songs.
“I am sure that the debates in Liverpool will be undeniably “full and frank”, but the questions are now not how to obtain enough power to implement our policies, but how to actually implement them.”

7. My Own Personal Political Crisis on Gary Watt’s Gary for Lincoln Lib Dems’ blog.
Requesting some reassurance that the Coalition is worth it.

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. Day 5404: Hard Labour Betray You Again – They have Nothing Left But Their SPIN on Millennium Dome Elephant’s Very Fluffy Diary.
‘Millennium lays into Wedgie’ (Submitted by MarkThompson via LibDig).

9. Cameron to Clean Up Thatcher’s Mess? on Steph Ashley’s Dib Lemming.
‘A single mum explains why she agrees with Cameron’s suggestion that council homes should not be for life.’ (Submitted by lizw via LibDig).

10. Aspiring politicians and controversial views on Mark Thompson’s Mark Reckons.
‘We all agreed it is true that some people who aspire to political office, whether it is local or national play their cards close to their chest on controversial issues. After all, it is easy for political opponents to put screaming headlines on a leaflet such as “SOFT ON DRUGS” or similar and this can cause real damage.’ (Submitted by dazmando via LibDig).

11. Why the coalition’s plan for social housing could actually work on Lisa Harding’s Spiderplant Land.
‘Spiderplant takes a less explosive attitude to the social housing plan than Simon Hughes.’ (Submitted by Dies Irae via LibDig).

12. Waah, Waah, the Lib Dems are helping the EVIL Tory housing plans! on Adam Bell’s Decline of the Logos.
“Cameron’s attempts to reduce the demand for social housing by shifting out people who can afford it is actually good thing, but it’s not the real story – the Tories need to reconsider their planning policy if we’re going to resolve the housing crisis. I look forward to the Guardian’s campaign against green belts.”

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

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