Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 518th 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 (27 May – 2 June, 2018), together with a hand-picked seven from the last two weeks, following our break for last week’s Bank Holiday, that 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. How Theresa May not promoting from within could lead to her downfall by Nick Tyrone on Nick.Tyrone.com.
A whole new generation of Tories is making a name for itself outside government.

2. Why Lewisham East matters by Jonathan Fryer on Jonathan Fryer.
Can the party pull off another Brent East?

3. What became of Jeremy Thorpe’s son? by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
He’s now a press photographer who took a much sought after picture.

4. Whatever the Ashdown Prize is, it’s not about radicalism by Nick Barlow on Medium.com.
Nick is not impressed with the shortlisted finalists.

5. A 2015 encounter with Andrew Newton by  Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.
The Lib Dem Blogfather brings you the news before the Mail on Sunday. .

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. Affairs of my Heart by Ross Pepper on A Pinch of Pepper.
Ross fought Sleaford and North Hykeham for us in the 2016 by-election. Here he writes about his recent illness and open heart surgery. Hope you continue to recover well.

7. On “identity politics” and the meaning of words by Jennie Rigg on Ten KitKats and a Motoring Atlas.
You need to understand what other people might mean when you use a particular phrase. If in doubt, say it another way.

8. Rid of it by Jen Yockney on Either/And
Jen shows how liberals north and south of the border were instrumental in getting rid of Section 28 and at how Kirsty Williams is doing the exact opposite in Wales by insisting on mandatory, inclusive sex education.

9. 5 things about this week – 1 June 2018 by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall.
Stephen dusts off his old blog and weans himself off Twitter – and enjoys shared parental leave.

10. Trump is the wild card that gives the lie to the Brexiteers’ dreams by Peter Black on Peter Black.
Trump is not going to come to our rescue with a trade deal so we need to have a vote on the Brexit arrangement, argues Peter

11. Diary Day 621: an immensely damaging process, harmful to both sides by Josephine Hayes on Josephine Hayes.
Businesses start to count the cost.

12. A culture clash with my mixed race daughter over a dog by Jane Chelliah on Feminist Mama.
I kind of like the idea of dogs spending the day with their pals while we’re out at work.

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