Welcome to the 95th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7th-13th December), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
‘Tis the season of tradition, so let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down.
1. Why the green movement fails [ADDENDUM] on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog!
“The green movement has proven itself to be extremely good at winning battles, particularly battles that both the crusties and the nimbies can agree on, but it is losing the war.”
2. Con Home – there are ‘only 2,600 Lib Dems in Wales’ on Darrell Goodliffe’s Moments of Clarity blog.
To clarify, there are 2,600 party members. I think we can confidently assert there are many more Lib Dems.
3. Liberal Vision – if it wasn’t nailed to its perch, it would be pushing up the daisies… on Mark Valladares’ Liberal Bureaucracy blog.
Come on, Mark, don’t sit on the fence; tell us what you really think.
4. Cowley St Xmas Party – exclusive photos! on Jonathan Wallace’s blog.
Party HQ gets in the festive spirit.
5. And the winner is … Kirsty Williams on Lib Dem Voice.
Warmest good wishes to Kirsty on her election as the party’s first female leader.
6. Lord Jacobs becomes rightwingers’ new poster child on James Graham’s Quaequam Blog!
James shows he can do moderate, sweet reason too (sort of), with his take on the most recent Lib Dem defection: “It is quite curious and generally surprising.”
7. So farewell then, Lord Spudulike on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog.
Paul asserts his own theory: “I suspect [Lord Jacobs] is being nice and actually is going because of general disenchantment, perhaps with the leadership.”
And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. And as is now traditional we’re using the LibDig widget to select some of the posts from the seven days in question which you’ve most ‘dug’. But, remember, if you want to highlight a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days – your own, or someone else’s – using the steam-powered method of e-mail all you have to do is drop me a line at stephen@libdemvoice.org (providing the web-link and author, and any tagline comment you care to have published).
8. The departure of Sharon Shoesmith on Lynne Featherstone’s Parliament and Haringey Diary blog.
Lynne’s unequivocal verdict on her departure as Haringey’s director of children’s services: “For the first time in a long time what should have happened has happened. No pay off. No excellent references.”
9. Day 2899: Things Robert Peston Should’ve Ought to’ve known on Millennium Dome, Elephant’s Very Fluffy Diary blog.
Millennium nails the BBC’s Robert Peston and Carphone Warehouse’s David Ross: “Proper disclosure, i.e. honesty, about WHAT directors are doing with other people’s money and assets is VITAL for proper supervision and regulation. And that is at the HEART of why the economy has gone BASE over APEX.”
10. Oh Canada! Lessons for democrats on Neil Stockley’s blog.
Nominated by James Graham via LibDig: ‘Canadian Conservatives and their troubled relationship with democracy.’
11. How best to deal with an economic crisis? on Steve Goddard’s 963 Votes from Victory blog.
A warm welcome to the Lib Dem blogosphere for Oxford East’s parliamentary spokesman.
12. Why atheist Quist loves Christmas on ‘Costigan Quist’s’ Himmelgarten Café blog.
“… what shines through about Christmas (and Hannukah, Diwali, the winter solstice and all the rest of the festivals around this time of year) is mankind’s ability, no matter how bad things get, to make the effort to have a good time.” Aww, bless.
That’s it for this week. Happy blogging.
