Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 395th 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 (-, 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. The Day Private Eye invited me to lunch by Stephen Tall  on Stephen Tall.
What gossip would Stephen bring back…or spread? And what did Ian Hislop make of his guests?

2. Latest Ashcroft poll gives narrow Labour lead and puts Liberal Democrats in 5th by Charlotte Henry on Charlotte Henry.
Grim reading for Liberal Democrats.

3. UKIP continues to fail while succeeding by Mark Pack  on Mark Pack.
Some interesting polling on UKIP.

4. What was your most bizarre canvassing experience? by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
A question prompted by a snippet from Tim Razzall’s memoirs.

5. Two things we learnt about the Lib Dems today by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Actually, we must quite like that Coetzee bloke, says Mark.

6. The Liberal Democrat Conference Leaderboard by Iain Brodie Browne on Birkdale Focus.
That darned CAMRA hoopla. I didn’t even got on it and Joe Otten was only marginally less rubbish.

7. Coetzee’s “quiet bat people” moment shows need for a rethink on the manifesto by me on Caron’s Musings.
From a piece that got quoted in the Daily Telepraph’s Morning Briefing. Where’s our planet-saving, establishment busting stuff?

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. Rotherham and Liverpool by Richard Kemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?
Liverpoool’s Chief Executive once worked at Rotherham Council. Richard explains why he would not be going to a meeting with him at this stage.

9.  Low Finance by Mira on Mira’s Picture .
On pension planning

10. More AV Referendum fun: the sick baby billboard by Nick Tyrone on NickTyrone.com.
Nick points out some lessons we could learn from the No to AV campaign’s scurrilous messaging.

11. Have I got news for you makes history – but far too late #HIGNFY by Nick Barlow on What you can get away with.
It only took almost quarter of a century for them to have one single show with a majority of women on the panel.

12. Is the NHS pulling in opposite directions? by David Boyle on The Real Blog
How does integration of health and social care fit in with increased competition?

And your Presidential Election bonus:

All 3 presidential candidates respond to Alex Wilcock’s questions on Love nnd Liberty and give statements to Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats

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. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social