Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 189th 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 (26th September — 2nd October, 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. Dubious Lib Dem blogs on Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger.
An infiltator in the ranks!

2. Ten Things I Learned At #ldconf, by Jennie Rigg Aged 32 2/3 on Jennie Rigg’s blog.
“… it felt like the same family gathering as ever. Sure, we were in a swankier house, with coppers outside, but everyone was still themselves, and that was comforting. Conference as reassurance? Hell yes.”

3. More on the “investigation” into claims against an MP on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings.
The latest on Mike Hancock.

4. Oldham East and Saddleworth: The Labour Shortlist? on Nick Thornsby’s blog.
Four hopefuls limber up in the event that the egregious Phil Woollas’s career ends in tatters.

5. Massaging those statistics on Peter Black’s blog.
How Labour’s membership keeps going up while staying the same, like an Escher drawing.

6. Day 3547: Is that REALLY Machiavelli on the Wall? Millennium Elephant meets the Deputy Prime Minister on Richard Flowers’ Millennium Dome, Elephant’s Very Fluffy Diary.
The day the boggers met the Lib Dem DPM.

7. As of today, I am no longer a woman on Zoe O’Connell’s Complicity.
Thanks to the Equalities Act 2010.

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. We’re not technocrats. We mustn’t sound as if we are on David Boyle’s blog.
‘Liberals should back free schools, argues David: “I’m a Liberal and it seems to me to be our role to back the people against the system. To back the people against the bureaucrats. To back diversity against uniformity, and energy against neatness.”‘ (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig.)

9. Stonewall *insert rage here* on Jae Kae’s Neue Politik.
‘As blog post title says…’ (Submitted by markpack via LibDig.)

10. Day 3550: Freak Schools on Richard Flowers’ Millennium Dome, Elephant’s Very Fluffy Diary.
‘The speech that never was – in praise of the principle of free schools: “let’s make Free Schools into Schools of Opportunity!”‘ (Submitted by stephenftall via LibDig.)

11. Gaoled: for blogging… on Michael Carchrie Campbell’s Gyronny Herald.
‘Looking to Iran Michael reminds us that the odd ‘critical’ comment is the worse that faces fellow bloggers in other parts of the world.’ (Submitted by Stephen Glenn via LibDig.)

12. The Orange Book: The New Godwin’s Law on Jazz Hands’ Serious Business.
‘Well made point about the difference between what people mean when they say “Orange Book” and what the book itself says.’ (Submitted by markpack via LibDig.)

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

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