Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 378th 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 (1-7 June 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, 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. Would you have voted Tory in Newark? by me on Caron’s Musings.
We aren’t in any more bother than we were a week ago. Squeeze was inevitable, but we must show a lot more soul.

2. Statement following SLF AGM by Linda Jack on Social Liberal Forum.
Things from the horse’s mouth, not Andrew Rawnsley’s.

3. Liberal Democrats gain two councillors on Brentwood Council as Tories lose control by Nick Hollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst.
Great news from Essex – and particularly pleasing to hold a by-election win from 2012.

4. My latest column for the Leicester Mercury: Clegg will stay but things must change by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
The need for change Jonathan outlines is echoed across the whole party with a great deal of agreement about what must change. We can’t all be wrong.

5. The heroism of Steve Webb by David Boyle on The Real Blog.
He’s delivered the Pensions reform that the other parties wouldn’t do.

6. The Lib Dems could get The Economist’s endorsement by Freethinking Economist on Freethinking Economist.
But this may not be a good thing.

7. Cleggonia wins victory in the Battle of Newark by Dan Falchikov on Living on words alone.
Dan gets distinctly Orwellian.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected]. You can also contact us via Twitter, where we’re @libdemvoice

8. How Al Gore can improve the Lib Dem campaign narrative by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Don’t let the voters feel you’re patronising them. (Submitted by Peter Black via Twitter.)

9. What do “serious parties of government” do and what does it mean for how the Lib Dems need to change? by Martin Tod on Martin Tod.
Four serious suggestions from Martin, the most important being to say what we would do in government alone.

10. On being a candidate by Charlotte Henry on Charlotte Henry: Blog of a digital politico.
Charlotte on the “amazing experience” of being a candidate with some advice for the future.

11. Alex Salmond, the gambler, gambles with the future of Scotland by Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings.
I hadn’t thought of it like that before.

12. A fairer deal for your local by Gareth Epps on Gareth Epps.
Lib Dems deliver for “publicans, consumers and communities.”

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