Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 307th 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 (30 December 2012 – 5 January 2013), 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. The futility of forecasts, or why nobody knows who will win the next election  by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall .
“Given how much the political plates have shifted in the last 3 years…trying to predict an event that’s 30 months away is a fool’s errand.”

2. Memoirs of a minor public figure – Des Wilson’s memoirs by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Mark reviews the memoirs of a “pioneering, high profile and controversial” campaigner.

3. Even the Tories think the Tories can’t win by Simon Titley on Liberator’s Blog.
“Governing parties that implement austerity policies are habitually thrown out of office irrespective of whether they are right, left or centre.”

4. Clegg starts New Year with attack on Labour and a silly mistake by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico.
“The Liberal Democrats are going to require a lot more finesse if they are going to start the fightback in 2013.”

5. My predictions for 2013 by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson’s Blog.
Sir Bruce Forsyth, Eddie Mair and the ennoblement of a Lib Dem blogger? I almost can’t wait for December 31st to see if he’s right.

6. Should pensioner benefits be means tested?  by Stephen Williams MP on Stephen Williams’ blog .
Stephen’s take on how we pay for rising care costs and also balance the nation’s books fairly.

7. What a bad start for the West Mercia police commissioner by Andy Boddington on Andy Boddington – Lib Dem.
A massive rise in costs and appointing his campaign manager as his deputy.

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. Jeremy Browne and the rigour of Government by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
“The Lib Dems have long claimed that their manifestos were fully costed – shouldn’t Lib Dem ministers check their facts, too?”  (Submitted by Alex via email)

9. Dear Nick…An open letter on closed material procedures by Andrew Brown on The Widow’s World.
Andrew writes an open letter urging Nick Clegg to meet Jo Shaw of the #No2secretcourts campaign. (Submitted by Louise Shaw via LibDig.)

10. Saturday Silly comes courtesy of Andy Burnham MP by Jennie Rigg on Jennie Rigg .
Now Labour wants to ban Frosties – Jennie outlines some healthy alternatives. Not to Frosties, to bansturbation. “it’ll be interesting to see what’s next. Puritanism is never satisfied…” (Submitted by Alex via email.)

11. It’s perfectly fair for benefits to rise faster than wages by George Potter on The Potter Blogger.
George argues that it’s easier for someone on the average wage of £26,000 to absorb a rise in living costs than someone on Job Seekers’ Allowance of £3700.

12. Cognitive Dissonance and secret courts by Louise Shaw on From one of the jilted generation.
“So I’m sat here with two competing beliefs. I think that we must do the right thing, I can’t believe any Liberal Democrat would believe otherwise. But I’m not sure we are…….”

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

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* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social