Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 384th 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 (27th July – 2nd August, 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. A note about my Resignation by Sam Phripp on So Sam Said.
Sad news from Somerset, where Sam has quit the council owing to “such hostility, intimidation and bullying that I simply can’t and won’t go on any further”.

2. Vote Green, Get UKIP. What uninformed bull-plop from local Labour bloggers by Neil Monnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery.
The vagaries of first-past-the-post voting with a Southend twist.

3. The wisdom of political punditry by Mark Pack on Mark Pack’s blog.
Still believe what the newspapers tell you?

4. An impressively bizarre election move by a former UKIP election candidate by Mark Pack on Mark Pack’s blog.
An easy mistake to make…

5. A liar and a cheat pairs up with a possessor of counterfeit goods and ex-con to raise money for UKIP by Mark Pack on Mark Pack’s blog.
Ukip sure know how to pick ’em.

6. No, You’re Not Going To Get Ebola by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!.
Breathe easy.

7. Social Liberal Conference: Farron on the Radical challenge now the Regan/Thatcher/ Blair consensus is dead by Iain Brodie Browne on Birkdale Focus.
“Here, at last, was someone who was speaking about their dreams and hopes.”

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 our concern about child abuse makes children less safe by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Too much suspicion of adults’ motivations can stop them intervening to help.

9. I THINK I have a handle on the way Labour are thinking by Jennie Rigg on miss_s_b.
” Labour people think anything Labour = objectively, unquestionably good and anything not!Labour = bad.”

10. British business can be so contemptuous of customers by David Boyle on The Real Blog.
Why don’t businesses ever seem to be able to predict “unprecedented levels” of customer demand every day?

11. Goodbye, Mr Ruffley. You didn’t really get it, did you? by Mark Valladares on The View from Creeting St Peter.
How the Tory MP was eventually forced to retire after accepting a caution for common assault.

12. Eric Storey by Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus.
A reminder of how small gestures can mean more than we realise.

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

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