Ed’s Inbox: January 12th 2011

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

If Ed Miliband could only read five blogposts each day, he’d read these ones…

A snap election promises Cameron the glory he craves – Labour Uncut
By Tom Watson MP

The Conservatives are preparing for a general election in May. That is what a devilishly well-placed conservative insider told me in response to my “Operation Detach” column last week.

My source has been spot on in the past. He also told me that the working assumption for Andy Coulson’s departure announcement was now 25th January. He told me this to help justify his argument that an election in May was a strong possibility. Clearing the decks and all that. – Read more

Will Cameron Call an Early Election? – Scarlet Standard
By Emma Burnell

There’s a very interesting post on Labour Uncut today, from Tom Watson. Essentially Tom is repeatinggossip from a senior Tory that they might consider breaking the coalition and going for an early election in May.

These ideas aren’t plucked from the ether, and Tom has clearly been given this line by someone, but ideas like this don’t always get floated because they will happen.

Sometimes they are floated because people want to see what the reaction to the idea would be before deciding whether or not to implement it. A negative response means the idea will quietly be dropped while it remains unattributable gossip, a positive response might elicit a stronger response. – Read more

The Game of Gaffe-Gotcha – John Rentoul
By John Rentoul

The exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions were evenly balanced, if you like that kind of Punch and Judy thing. David Cameron was caught out by an old quotation in which he said no banker should get a bonus of more than £2,000, which must have been a stupid thing to say even when he said it. Which gave Ed Miliband, and not even he would advocate such a Spartist policy now, the edge in the contest to see who could tax banks the most. Actually the surprising answer to that question is Cameron, who said that the overall tax paid by the banks would be more this year than it was under Labour. But the contest was a draw because no one is interested in facts. – Read More

The hypocritical leaflets of Westminster candidate in tuition fraud scandal – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

“Competent training, on flexible terms”, boasts the corporate website of a Coventry-based tutorial agency. Well, flexible for its owner Vincent McKee, the Liberal Democrat candidate who helped himself to thousands of pounds of his clients’ money direct from their bank accounts.

Sidestepping the irony of a Lib Dem owning a company called “ICUT”, Sky News’ investigation into the party’s candidate for Coventry North West uncovered an apparently systematic pattern of abuse at the Institute of Colleges and University Teachers, “defrauding students out of thousands of pounds in tuition fees” – Read more

Why I’m anxious about the Co-op Party – LabourList
By Carl Rowlands

Whenever the Co-operative Party appear on LabourList, as they have done in the recent past, I must confess, I am both glad and anxious. Glad, in that they are raising the profile of the co-operative movement, of which I remain a somewhat disillusioned supporter. But also anxious, as I no longer trust what might be on the agenda.

These days, it seems, advocates for co-operation exist at the top of the Labour Party. Ed Miliband is a member of his local Co-op Party branch in Doncaster. Ed Balls is a consistent, long-term supporter of the co-operative movement. Much of the time, he prefers to talk more of mutuality. Mutuality is a difficult definition – it could actually mean Surrey County Cricket Club or exclusive gentlemen’s associations. – Read more

And a blog from the Tories that will be of interest to many party members…

Good news about manifesto planning for the next election – Conservative Home
by Paul Goodman

It’s clearly important that the Party has its own policy-making programme up and running well before the next election – and that it isn’t merged by stealth with that of the Liberal Democrats. (The Downing Street Policy Unit can make policy only for the Coalition, not the Party.)

This is why I wrote recently that Graham Brady, the 1922 Committee Chairman, should issue David Cameron an ultimatum next summer if Downing Street has, by then, made no move to form party policy for the next election.

Today, there’s encouraging news to report. – Read more

Our suggestions for Ed’s inbox are limited by what we read – so if you’ve seen a blogpost that should be in Ed’s inbox, let us know.