Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 338th 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 (4-10 August, 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. What being liberal is for by Rob Parsons on A Comfortable Place.
Yes it’s tough sometimes, but Rob tells us why it’s all worthwhile. Do not attempt to click on the link within the post without a box of tissues to hand unless your heart is actually made of stone.

2. Trust in the Laud? Not likely by Lester Holloway on Lester Holloway.
Lester thinks that Derek Laud should examine some of his own comments before accusing anyone else of racism.

3. Judge describes 13 year old paedophile victim as “predatory” by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico.
Seriously. It was like Judge Pickles all over again. I thought we were over that kind of nonsense.

4. Chaos on the streets of Liverpool by Richard Kemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?
Labour are making a mess of street cleaning and residents are noticing.

5. Victoria Coren nails us all bang to rights “Freedom is the most important thing of all” by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall.
Stephen agrees with Victoria on how we should respond to trolls and bullies.

6. Dear Daily Mail, **** you by George Potter on The Potter Blogger
Yes, it’s sweary, but George takes down the Fail for questioning his (and Nick Clegg’s) Britishness.

7. Lib Dems for a united opposition to Labour on Redcar Council by Chris Abbott on Chris Abbott.
Now that Labour have lost their overall majority, it’s time for the opposition to work together.

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. Is UKIP racist or is it just everything they say?  by Richard Flowers  on The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.
Richard challenges us all to be more respectful to others in our language: “Never mind “political correctness gone mad”, this is political correctness just GONE!”

9. Moral panics rarely lead to good law, in cyberspace or meatspace by Jennie Rigg on Automated attack monkeys, scalpel mines and acid .
Jennie sees a correlation between those who are complaining most about the evils of the internet are those with most to gain from its regulation.

10. What Northern Ireland needs is a hand UP not a handOUT by Aine McGrath on Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland.
A sobering assessment of Northern Ireland’s governance 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement and what’s needed to get it back on track.

11. Stephen Fry’s call to arms – why the IOC must act on Russia by Edward Lord on Edward Lord.
Edward outlines yet another reason to love Stephen Fry.

12. Liberal Mondays 4: Ralf Dahrendorf vs Utopia #libdemvalues by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty.
Alex says freedom is “messy and awkward but it’s both more human and more practical” than Utopia.

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