Our top ten blog posts

This blog began exactly six months ago on 10 November 2012. It has steadily gained a bigger audience, but which are the stories that attracted the biggest audiences? Here are the top ten posts, starting with the most popular*:

1. Stay “on message” or be EXTERMINATED! (28 December 2012) – The most popular post by a long way, in which the Liberal Democrats’ new ‘message script’ was revealed.
2. New Lib Dem peerages: runners and riders (14 February 2013) – A list of new peers has been drawn up and we speculated who was on it. At the time of writing, however, the list has still not been announced.
3. Laws scrapes home (8 January 2013) – The third of three posts on the controversial appointment of David Laws to chair the Liberal Democrats’ working group that will draft the next general election manifesto.
4. And Clegg’s next slap in the face to the party is...? (27 March 2013) – Following the controversies of secret courts and immigration, we raised the issue of the Communications Data Bill. Thankfully, on this topic Nick Clegg subsequently accepted his party’s view.
5. The Rise and Fall of Economic Liberalism (17 March 2013) – A detailed account of the factionalism within the Liberal Democrats that began in 2001, and an analysis of why the plotting by ‘economic liberals’ is ultimately doomed.
6. Clegg to abandon electoral reform? (1 April 2013) – The date provides a clue. Our April Fool’s Day story fooled several of you but its plausibility says a lot about the party’s relationship with its leader.
7. Quote of the Conference (10 March 2013) – And the quote came from former MP David Howarth, speaking in the debate on secret courts.
8. Laws to write manifesto? (5 January 2013) – The first of three posts on the controversial appointment of David Laws to chair the Liberal Democrats’ working group that will draft the next general election manifesto.
9. Racial equality too dangerous to debate? (22 January 2013) – Our report on the decision of the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Conference Committee (FCC) to reject a motion on racial equality for debate at the party’s spring conference. We also examined the long-simmering internal row behind this controversial decision.
10. Gay marriage – never mind the Tories, what about the Labour and Lib Dem rebels? (5 February 2013) – On the day of the Commons vote on gay marriage, the media focus was on the Tory rebels. We looked instead at the Labour and Liberal Democrat opponents of gay marriage.

* Popularity is ranked according to the number of pageviews (i.e. clicks to individual posts) recorded by Blogger.com.