Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 313rd 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 (10 – 16 February, 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. New Lib Dem peerages runners and riders  by Simon Titley on Liberator’s Blog .
There  may be a by-election on, but some inside gossip tops this week’s haul.

2. The Liberal Democrats must rediscover why they even exist or extinction is certain by Cicero on Cicero’s Songs .
Warnings from Cicero are not to be taken lightly. He says we need to get some soul  into our thoughts and deeds.

3. The evidence that Lib Dems can still squeeze Labour in parliamentary by-elections  by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Where will Labour voters look in a tight Lib Dem/Conservative race?

4. Left foot forward shows its bias  by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson’s blog.
They weren’t quite as sympathetic to the Mansion Tax when it was Vince Cable’s idea.

5. Tories choose a Wiki candidate by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Tory candidate Maria Hutchings gets her Eastleigh info from…Wikipedia.

6. A reply to Iain Dale’s post “Eastleigh by-election gets dirty”  by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall.
Stephen on Tory Maria Hutchings’ comments that her son who wants to be a surgeon couldn’t do so if he had a state education.

7. This front page is so bad and disrespectful that I had to share it by Carl Minns on Thoughts from Hull.
By all means be annoyed at the photo of Reeva Steenkamp on the Sun’s front page, says Carl, but don’t pass it round the internet.

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] This week,I am again indebted for the help of Alex Wilcock of Love and Liberty.

8. Maria Hutchings on state schools- fair game by Paul Walter  on Liberal Burblings.
If she attacks other people, doesn’t that open her up to criticism in return? (Submitted by Alex via email)

9. Of Popes and Monarchs going on and on by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson’s blog.
Why we should be grateful to Pope Benedict for showing a bit of humanity. (Submitted by Alex via email.)

10. Action, acting and authenticity by Louise Shaw on From one of the Jilted Generation .
“Chutzpah and a little seduction” on the doorsteps – but it’s important that our actions and our values are consistent.

11. Trans amendments to the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill by Zoe O’Connell on Complicity.
Zoe outlines the amendments submitted to Parliament and tell us why they are  needed to make marriage fair and equal for trans people.

12. The USA is weird by Terence Eden on Terence Eden has a blog .
Observations of a holiday in the USA.

And there’s a bonus this week. The awesome Liberal Youth have been helping the Eastleigh Campaign by creating Team Eastly, heading down their in droves or, like Hannah Bettsworth in Edinburgh yesterday, hitting the phones to talk to Eastleigh voters. On their Today I made a difference site, some of them talk about what they’ve done for the campaign. What have you done to help Mike Thornton today?

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