Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #318

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 318th 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 (17 – 23 March, 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. Chris Huhne – one of the lags by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico.
Charlotte speculates that Huhne may find more camaraderie in prison than round the Cabinet Table.

2. Pugh on local government boundaries by Iain on Birkdale Focus.
I had to Google sandgrounder. Now I understand.

3. It’s not just Labour stealing Lib Dem ideas by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico.
This is a cracker.

4. By-election gains since October 2010 by Andy Pellew on Focus on Bar Hill.
A big, tall splodge of yellow.

5. Will Lib Dem focuses be bound by the new press regulation? by Andrew Emmerson on DIY Liberalism.
Something we all need to know…

6. Lib Dem gain from Labour on Dacorum Borough Council on Nick Hollinghurst.
Good news – and as an aside, I liked the fact that Nick Clegg included congratulations to our two new councillors in Letter from the Leader yesterday.

7. Watch Paddy Ashdown’s cracking speech to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference on Mark Pack
Definitely worth a watch, even if you’ve seen it before. My friend Sarah Boad and I were both pregnant the last time Paddy made a conference speech in 1999. Both our girls are now party members.

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. Clegg makes a positive case for immigration and we’re all too outraged to hear it by Andrew Emmerson on DIY Liberal.
“This was unmistakably a positive case for immigration – something we’ve been challenging our leaders to do for decades.”

9. The nearest thing to an intellectual guru by David Boyle on The Real Blog.

“It may indeed be impossible to find the objective truth in this world, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is true. What’s more that fact should be absolutely vital to Liberals everywhere, because it is the antidote to tyranny.”

10. A little bit of calm reflection on the Royal Charter and bloggers by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
Paul says that it’s all going to be fine and there will be amendments to sort out the initial confusion.

11. As aqua fades, should the Liberal Democrats drop Helvetica? by Matthew Green on Thinking Liberal.
A bit of font geekery is always a good thing.

12. The Liberal Democrats’ what do we stand for 2013.4 – what it’s all about #libdemvalues by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty.
The next stage of Alex’s quest to develop a coherent, up to date statement of Liberal Democrat values.

And for a Budget Bonus, here’s Richard Flowers’ take on George Osborne’s speech and his suggestion for what Liberal Democrats should look for now that we have met our key pledge of raising the tax threshold to £10,000.

And one more – Linda Jack recalls the Commons debate on the Iraq War ten years on.

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

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