Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 370th 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 (30 March – 5 April, 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. I may have over-estimated the importance of last night’s debate to the public by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
Lib Dems may have been obsessing about Nick v Nigel, but what was on the Twittersphere’s mind?
2. My take on Nick v Nigel Round 2 by me on Caron’s Musings.
When all’s said and done, Nick speaks for me.
3. Why Farage won by David Boyle on The Real Blog.
Three reasons that gave Farage the edge in the debate, even though Nick performed well.
4. The second Nick v Nigel IN/OUT debate by Jonathan Fryer on Jonathan Fryer.
Nick performed well for the first 30 minutes, but Farage had upper hand towards the end, says Jonathan.
5. My predictions for Nick v Nigel Round 2 by Richard Morris on A View from Ham Common.
Actually, most of these were pretty accurate, except number 8, sadly.
6. Luddites and the McDonaldiasation of society by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
A thoughtful reflection on a Twitter row he witnessed in which he reckons that both parties had missed the main point – how businesses are changing their customers’ behaviour to suit themselves and what this might mean for modern liberalism.
7. Another poll, another lead for “in” over “out in a Euro referendum by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Before you hyperventilate, he means the EU, not the actual Euro.
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. Shhh 0,7% aid target reached by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal.
A milestone achieved. And credit given to Cameron for facing down the Tory right who may not be so chuffed about it.
9. Why cutting beer duty won’t save a single pub by Gareth Epps on Gareth Epps.
Gareth wonders why CAMRA are concentrating on beer duty and not Pubcos.
10. Those that live by the sword by Cicero on Cicero’s Songs.
A prediction of the need for the west to defend itself against further Russian aggression from a tyrannical leader at the helm of a collapsing economy. Sobering.
11.The other spousal veto by Zoe O’Connell on Complicity.
Zoe uncovers another way in which transgender people are not treated as equal under the marriage law.
12. The Green Deal: a small but revolutionary change by Alex Smethurst on Alex Smethurst – Redland’s Liberal Voice.
How the green deal helps cut energy costs for the poorest. (Submitted by Alex via email.
And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading ‘n’ nominating.

<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-lib-dem-golden-dozen-370-39112.html"><img src="https://www.libdemvoice.org/images/golden-dozen.png" width="200" height="57" alt="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" title="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" /></a>
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings