Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 347th 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 (29 September – 5 October, 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. Sort of an exclusive: Is this why Nigel Farage is standing in Thanet South? by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
Could this really have factored in the UKIP leader’s thinking?

2. Lib Dems send email petitioning David Cameron. Isn’t that what ministers are for? by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico
Charlotte criticises marriage tax break but questions the tactic of the petition request to Lib Dem members

3. Hats off to Ed Miliband for doing this by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
Richard backs Labour leader’s defence of his father.

4. Current senior cabinet minister confirms he is a social liberal by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
I have my doubts although I’d love to see an exchange between the two protagonists.

5. Confusing politics with patriotism by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
Paul recommends a book to Paul Dacre so he can learn about what life was like in the WW2 Navy.

6. Is Mr Cameron laying a trap for the Liberal Democrats? by Richard Flowers on The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.
What is he up to? Richard speculates about the reason for Cameron’s threat to remove benefits from the under 25s and suggests an appropriate response from Liberal Democrats.

7. Justified outrage at Daily Mail smear by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Peter reminds of us a Mail headline from the 30s.

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. Joan Coleman RIP, President and Chair of Southport Liberals and much more besides by Iain Brodie Brown on Birkdale Focus .
A tribute to a much loved liberal legend. (Submitted by Richard Hands via email.)

9. Private Eye can Arkell v Pressdram over #talknottech by Dave Page  on Jazz Hands, Serious Business .
Dave tells the satirical magazine its attempt to link the porn debate at conference with allegations about Cyril Smith is “cheap and crass”

10. If Theresa May was a terrorist… a thought experiment by Richard Flowers on The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.
She might need these pesky human rights she spends her life railing against… (Submitted by Stephen Glenn via LibDig.)

11. Reforming the interim peers panel: a pragmatic system that is used is better than a principled one which is mothballed  by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.  (Submitted by Richard Morris via Twitter.)

12. Red lines from Cameron’s welfare changes by Stephen Glenn on Stephen’s Liberal Journal.
An account of why an under 25 year old might need benefits.

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