Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 371st 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 (6th-12 April, 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. The riddle of Jeremy Browne by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
“One definition of a liberal is “a pain in the arse”. So yes, Browne is being very liberal, at the moment”.

2. David Laws breaks his elbow in a bizarre canvassing accident by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Jonathan has the story – including what David’s favourite food is.

3. How leaflets used to look – or how lazy previous MPs look to modern eyes on Mark Pack’s blog.
Politicians work much harder now – but the focus on cost of living and pensioners has always been there.

4. What happens to political parties in power by David Boyle on The Real Blog.
Lib Dems in government “become arch-pragmatists, prepared to accept almost any compromise if it avoids the humiliations of powerlessness that seem inevitably to come with power”.

5. Nick should not have gone against Nigel by Chris Sams on The Ginger Liberal from Medway.
“The public believe the worse and that has come out of these polls leaving Farage all the more stronger.”.

6. The EU and the UK: Where is the vision? by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
“Arguing in favour of the status quo may inevitably make it harder to arouse the passions, but we badly need more positive arguments than we are hearing at the moment.”.

7. The Clegg-Farage Debates: It Was Nick Wot Lost It on Keith Nevols’ blog.
“Although we lost this debate, raising the profile of the topic can only be good.”

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. Restorative Justice cuts crime, improves lives and reduces police costs on Alex Smethurst’s blog.
“Young people aged 16 to 25, who have acted in a racist or prejudicial way, are being brought together with their victims in a controlled setting to talk about what happened between them and work out how a similar situation can be prevented.”

9. Yes, it’s another post on Why I Am A Liberal by Jennie Rigg on miss_s_b.
“I’m a Liberal, and am happy to have discussions, or even stand-up rows, in the cause of freedom.”

10. Nigel Evans: there always has to be someone at fault? by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy.
“… if these charges had not been prosecuted, the CPS might well have been accused of a coverup – something that would be bad for justice and, in the long run, probably bad for Mr Evans.”

11. Boris: London is the U-bend of the Golden Triangle by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
“… the elaborate concoction of mixed allegories, aphorisms, Latin mottos and general huffing and puffing turns the whole thing into a rather painful street show.”

12. The tweet that shows Labour not only don’t get social mobility. They hate it by Carl Minns on Thoughts from Hull.
“I want to live in a country where leading politicians don’t sneer at someone because they succeed but ask ‘how can we ensure more people have the same opportunities?'”

And that’s it for another week. Happy blogging ‘n’ reading ‘n’ nominating.

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