Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #394

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 394th 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 (12-18 October, 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. So farewell then, Jeremy Browne  by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Jonathan is sad to see Jeremy go, saying we need our Whigs as well as our Radicals.

2. UKIP dump South Basildon and Esst Thurrock candidate Kerry Smith by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Except nobody seems to have told the candidate himself.

3. Five points to note about Jeremy Browne’s decision toe rand down by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
“This is not the action of someone who thinks an Orange Book coup has taken over the party.”

4. Great by-election new from York with landslide Lib Dem win by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Mark highlights a trio of good by-election results for the party.

5. Jeremy Browne MP resigns by Andrew Page on A Scottish Liberal.
Andrew describes seeing Jeremy at the Conference Glee Club. ” present but disengaged; surrounded by passionate liberals whose hymnbooks he refused to share; looking decidedly uncomfortable and ill-at-ease among the party faithful”

6. The London Excel Centre as existential hell: the AV referendum count revisited by Nick Tyrone on micktyrone.com.
Nick’s memories of the nightmare of the AV count, with added farting and pub tales. And who was celebrating most? An entertaining read.

7. In praise of the retiring Jeremy Browne by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall.
Stephen is sorry to see Jeremy going and thinks we should cut him some slack for the timing of his announcement.

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.Ten years on: still a Lib Dem and proud  by AVSL on A Very Social Liberal.
A new blogger on the block says, sure, we’ve made mistakes and this isn’t the Government we’d want to have, but we’ve done a load of good stuff.

9. 5 reasons why voting reform at council level may not be a great idea by Lester Holloway on Lester Holloway.
Lester’s talking specifically about the AV+ system that may be on offer post election. But he doesn’t mention that we already have STV in Scotland and it works, having broken up most of the Labour fiefdoms

10.Why I’ll still vote Liberal Democrat at #GE2015 by Jae Kay on Freedom is not the problem.
Jae’s not been enamoured of much of the Coalition’s work, but the Lib Dems have stood up for key values unlike the others.

11. How much is a Tory minister worth? by Maelo Manning on libdemchild aged 15.
Take that, David Freud.

12. Stand firm on Russian sanctions by Cicero on Cicero’s Songs.
Now is not the time to go soft not he “dishonourable” Kremlin.

And a couple of bonuses this week because I’m feeling generous and it’s what’s known as the “tattie picking” holidays up here. A friend of mine was telling me the other day that he actually did have to go tattie picking when he was a kid. The tractor would pick them up at 6am and take them to the fields. Anyway, your extras:

Chris Whiting suggests it’s premature to discount the Liberal Democrats:

In the upcoming election, the Liberal Democrats are the only party continuing to champion LGBT+ rights, the only party taking a serious stance on the drastically serious issue of female genital mutilation, the only party supporting the rights of football fans to enjoy the game without being discriminated against – as well as campaigning for safe standing in English football stadia. The party is also dedicated to reforming unfair drug laws that would stop those in possession of drugs from facing jail time. As well as this, the Liberal Democrats are aiming to criminalise the frighteningly more common acts of ‘revenge porn’. This week, the Lib Dems have come forward as the only major party committed to treating mental illness as seriously as physical ailments.

Liberalism is not irrelevant, no matter what the media says. This brand of politics will always be in demand in this country – it has just fallen on hard times.

And Daddy Alex, just over a week away from his wedding, takes time out to suggest 5 reasons why Mr Farage wants an early referendum on the EU. It must be the shortest thing he’s ever written.

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

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