Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 492nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (8-14 October, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven 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. John Buchan casts light on the strange views of Pete North by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
Jonathan looks to a 12 year old blogpost of his for the right response.

2. Green Party has second thoughts on electoral pacts by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
The Greens felt that standing aside for us had too much impact on vote share.

3. Huge swing from the Conservatives as Lib Dems gain Council seat by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.
Mark on the gain in Three Rivers.

4. Why the idea of a “progressive alliance” is a bad one. An excerpt from Apocalypse Delayed by Nick Tyrone on nicktyrone.com.
Nick looks at how the “progressive alliance” worked in 2017.

5. We have lost our balls by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace.
An assessment of our position in the EU negotiations..

And now to the seven 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

6. Censorship that undermines free speech and academic standards by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Peter on the furore over the Christian Union being denied a stall at Balliol.

7. Proudly presenting Lib Dem Awkward Squad t-shirts and jumpers and bags by Jennie Rigg on I spent ages waiting at the Rue Morgue and what do I get?.
A new range of merchandise.

8.. Sex and the census by Zoe O’Connell on Complicity
Taking down some of the nonsense that has been written on this.

9. Which trans people are real? by Helen Belcher on Challenging Journeys, Phase 2.
Why can’t everyone just accept people’s identity?

10. Fight racism because girls come in different skin tomes by Jane Chelliah on Feminist Mama
We need to look at all the structural inequalities in our society, argues Jane.

11. Remainer’s Diary Day 384: the writing is on the wall by Jo Hayes on Jo Hayes.
Brexit is looking grim from a number of angles – business and political.

12. Facebook will never die, will it? A depressed stream of consciousness by Jennie Rigg on I spent ages waiting at the Rue Morgue and what do I get?.
What Jennie did on the day of the Rose McGowan Twitter boycott

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