Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 353rd 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 November, 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. Why I am leaving the Lib Dems, AKA this is not a flounce by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson’ s blog.
It’s not just us, it’s party politics in general.

2. Sad news as Mark Thompson leaves the party by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
A “huge loss! of a “charming, intelligent, reasonable force for good.”

3.By election night 14  by Dan Falchikov on Living on words alone.
A preview of 4 by-elections, all being fought by Lib Dems.

4. Mike Hancock’s major opponent in 2015 – the Pompey Party? by Neil Monnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery.
BAE’s decision to close its Portsmouth shipyard has angered local people.

5. The Bedroom Tax vote – sticking the knife into the Lib Dems by Alex Marsh on Alex’s Archives.
Alex reminds us that these parliamentary votes aren’t just a “parlour game” – real lives are affected.

6. The Liberal Democrat candidate for Calder Valley in the 2015 General Election is… by Jennie Rigg on Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose .
Big meaty doses of  liberalism on the menu for local residents…

7. SNP minister announces he is gay by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
Attitudes may be changing, says Andrew, but it still takes courage to make such an announcement.

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 the Minister of State being naive or disingenuous? by Alex Marsh on Alex’s Archives.
Alex is not buying Norman Baker’s reassurances about the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill.

9. Boiling blood and living wages by Baroness Tyler on Liberator’s Blog.
The Coalition must do more to take people out of poverty – taking green levies into general taxation, better childcare and more people paying the living wage are 3 ideas to consider.

10. Why politics needs no little plans by David Boyle on The Real Blog.
10 ideas that could seriously improve our society

11. A simple case of supply and demand by Gareth Epps on Gareth Epps.
An analysis of why the normal rules of supply and demand don’t apply in the beer industry and why the pubcos must be tackled.

12. The professional blogger is dead by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Interesting commentary on blogging and its future – and I want to go on his course.

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