Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our413th 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 (22-28 February 2015), 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. Why Nick Clegg will hold on to Sheffield Hallam by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
There aren’t as many students there as people think.

2.  Ashcroft reveals that UKIP are behind in every seat he’s polled – the reporting of which demonstrates the left’s confusion over Farage’s party by Nick Tyrone on NickTyrone.com.
“UKIP is a massive existential threat to the left.”

3.  What if Nick Clegg loses his seat at the election? by Angela Harbutt on Liberal Vision.
Angela suggests that Malcolm Bruce should stand down as Deputy Leader and a new one should be elected before the dissolution of Parliament.

4. On Danny Alexander’s chances in Inverness, Nairn, Strathspey and Badenoch by Neil Monnery on The Ramblings of Neil Monnery.
Neil finds something interesting in the Ashcroft data in this seat.

5. Are there such things as “silent” Lib Dem voters? by Nick Tyrone on NickTyrone.com.
Are there people out there who are reluctant to admit to being Lib Dem voters?

6. Caroline Lucas has been making things worse for Natalie Bennett and the Green Party by Nick Tyrone on NickTyrone.com.
With friends like these….

7. Unhappy UKIP members threaten to form Real UKIP by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
It seems the local branch isn’t best pleased at central interference in its selection process.

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. An Elephant’s eye on the election by Richard Flowers on The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant.

It makes it all the more desperately important than ever that Liberal Democrats hold the centre ground, not because we’re wishy-washy and moderate, but because we’re the Party with a radical social conscience and grounded, practical, old-fashioned British COMMON SENSE.

9. Can any of Britain’s politics parties break the deadlock? by Matthew Green  on Thinking Liberal.

An electoral system that used to practically guarantee a succession of stable single party governments, is now moving towards one that simultaneously disenfranchises most voters (by stranding them in seats where their vote makes no difference), while delivering a result from which it is hard to form a governing majority. And yet such is the conservatism of Britain’s politicians and public, that it is difficult to see any successful move to change it.

10. Boris Nemtsov by Cicero on Cicero’s Songs.
From someone who knew him:

Nemtsov spoke for the Western Russia, as opposed to the Scythian one of Stalin and Putin. He believed in rule of law and rule of the people and he held in contempt those who have subverted and stolen Russia for their own personal greed. Nemtsov was not merely a political critic of Vladmir Putin’s regime, he was a moral rebuke to it.

11. Making the opposite mistake to Natalie Bennett by David Boyle on The Real Blog.

The Lib Dems are hugely exercised with the short-term strategies of getting policy details through Whitehall and the coalition.  Their whole attention is on making things happen, but have forgotten – hopefully temporarily – that they exist for a purpose beyond the moderation of Conservative and Labour excess.

If they forget sometimes what they are actually crusading for – the fundamental purpose of the party and its ideology – the Greens never do.  So don’t let’s be smug about Natalie Bennett’s embarrassment.  She is at least beginning to think about the practicalities of radical policy-making

12. There but for the grace of God… by Andrew Brown on The Widow’s World.
Andrew slept out on the streets to raise awareness of homelessness.

Becoming homeless happens to people from all walks of life. Relationship breakdowns, family quarrels, drug and/or alcohol problems and mental health issues are all amongst the triggers than can lead to a life on the streets.

Lying on the relative luxury of an airbed on what turned out to me a relatively mild and (faint drizzle aside) dry night, it wasn’t hard to imagine what it would be like for real. How much colder and wetter it could be. How much more uncomfortable lying on the ground would be. How much less you could be wearing if sleeping rough hadn’t been on your to-do list.

Any tech you had would soon become useless (other than for the pawn value) and podcasts and music would give way to the roar of traffic, the scream of sirens and the banter of drunken revellers.

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

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings