Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our late running 360th 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 December 2013– 4 January, 2014), 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. The SNP is determined to track down every last yes vote by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Snigger.

2. Sarah Teather and her magic carpet by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
A thoughtful reflection on Sarah’s Guardian interview about the nature of political discourse and religion in politics.

3. Has Zac Goldsmith left the Conservatives? by Dan Falchikov on Living on Words Alone.
You’d think so by the letter he’s been putting round.

4. Homophobic UKIP councillor “baffled” by lesbians by Charlotte Henry on Digital Politico.
You think people like this didn’t exist any more, but they do.

5. Mumsnet and the Naughty Step by John Hemming on John Hemming’s weblog.
John’s side of the story.

6. Labour: East European migrants are coming to take your job by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
On the day nobody found 29 million Romanians and Bulgarians in their back yards, Jonathan laments Labour’s new strategy.

7. Alex Salmond makes dramatic u-turn by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
Apparently he doesn’t much care for independence any more…

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. Owen Patterson’s misunderstanding of biodiversity s illustrative of a wider problem by Jennie Rigg on There will be guests at the hall.
Intellectual Dutch Elm disease says Jennie.

9. Improving diversity at the grassroots by Dave Page on Jazz Hands, Serious Business
Better diversity from the grassroots up. What you can do locally

10. Day 4742: Doctor Who: Silent Night by Richard Flowers on The very fluffy diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.
A review of the Doctor Who Christmas Special

11. The Book of Mormon: tears were rolling down my cheeks by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings
Paul went to see the new musical and loved it.

12. Kaua’i – rather more like the brochure promised by Mark Valladares on The View from Creeting St Peter
The second instalment of Lady Mark’s trip to Hawaii ends our festive season.

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