Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 207th 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 (30th January -5th February, 2011), 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. I can’t support the coalition anymore by Darren Bridgman on Bracknell Blog.
On independence – and dependents.

2. The Sharks are circling – but is it the Lib Dems they will ultimately devour? by Linda Jack on Lindylooz Muze.
Linda won’t leave it a-loan.

3. Increasing Party Membership: building on the issues of why people join by Matthew Gibson on Solution Focused Politics.
Context is king.

4. ‘Leading Labour councillor quizzed by police over grooming child for sex’ on James Barber’s blog.
Stories from Southwark.

5. Lib Dem Voice’s Alex Foster on Come Dine with Me this week by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
Caron whets our appetite…

6. Seven new parties set to launch in the UK by Alex Folkes on A Lanson Boy.
Alex imagines the fun on the doorstep.

7. What I still love about Nick Clegg! by Linda Jack on Lindylooz Muze.
Linda looks at the big picture.

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. Surely it’s too early to tell on the economy on Mark Thompson’s blog.
“A measured response to the Q4 GDP figures.” (Submitted by oneexwidow via LibDig.)

9. Fact-Checking Ed Balls on Nick Thornsby’s blog.
“Short, simple and effective post from Nick.” (Submitted by markpack via LibDig.)

10. Nick Clegg announces new funding and services for mental health – a personal account of why this will save lives by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
“Caron’s personal account of why this will save lives” (Submitted by helenduffett via LibDig.)

11. RIP: A free and fair local press on Steve Middleton’s blog.
“I’ve always stood up for free, fair and unbiased reporting as I believe it’s one of the things that makes this country great. To stand up and speak the truth is, I think, a universal right. The Egyptian people are struggling with this same problem as we speak, their media’s right to free speech was quashed yesterday when the popular news network Al Jazeera was banned from broadcast.” (Submitted by Actual via LibDig.)

12. The disqualification of MPs on mental health grounds by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
What Jonathan does best: gathering the background facts to give an illuminating take on a current story.

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

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