Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 228th 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 (26 June-2 July 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. Disaster in Inverclyde: what next for the Scottish Lib Dems? by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
Andrew calls on Willie Rennie to be a Renaissance Man.

2. How come David Miliband has a better grasp of our problems than Nick’s mates? by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
Richard says Lib Dems need a plan of attack to put things right.

3. Ideas from the Tory Party on increasing Lib Dem membership by Matthew Gibson on Solution Focused Politics .
The unexpected question prompted by the Shale report: “I should join the Liberal Democrat party because…”

4. Do we really need Polly Toynbee? by Charlotte Henry on Virtually Naked.
I vote Charlotte Henry to represent the Lib Dems on BBC Question Time.

5. Is Lib Dem education policy simply “Let Michael Gove do what ever he wants” ? by Nich Starling on Norfolk Blogger.
Nich (a teacher himself) looks for the Lib Dem narrative.

6. In praise of the Oxford comma, and of Ayn Rand by Stephen Tall on The Collected Stephen Tall.
Three Oxford greats: the university, the comma, and Stephen Tall.

7. Is this the end of Johann Hari? #Interviewswithhari by Andrew Emmerson on The Yellow Bastard.
No cutting and pasting here, as Andrew ponders Johann’s future.

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. Polls show mistrust in Lib Dem talent: Changes needed in Lib Dem mindset to gain electoral success by Matthew Gibson on Solution Focused Politics.
“YouGov shows that the public do not believe that the Lib Dems are led by people of ‘real’ ability. If we want to improve our perception in the public’s eye, if we want to improve our performance, and if we want to work better in Government then having a growth mindset will produce success and provide us with a strong political narrative come 2015” (Submitted by MatthewJ via LibDig.)

9. Why Liberal Democrats must care about burglars’ lives by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
“A response to Ken Clarke’s comments on stabbing burglars.” (Submitted by oneexwidow via LibDig.)

10. Surely they hate us for our own self, not on behalf of anyone else? by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
“The press yesterday were quoting friends of Nick Clegg as attributing our current unpopularity to our association with the Tories. Nonsense. We’ve managed it all on our own…” (Submitted by Richard Morris via LibDig.)

11. The secret life of Sophie Bridger, #inverclyde by-election candidate by Caron Lindsay on Caron’s Musings.
“Caron interviews and profiles the Scottish Lib Dem candidate in the Inverclyde by-election” (Submitted by oneexwidow via LibDig.)

12. 51p per person per year vs 1000 nurses by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson’s Blog.
“The cost of the monarchy: it’s all in the presentation.” (Submitted by oneexwidow via LibDig.)

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

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