Ed’s inbox – January 17th 2011

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

‘Progressive Majority’ – what does it even mean? – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

People are always quick to throw accusations of ‘triangulation’ at centre-left politicians without due consideration, I think. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton definitely employed that strategy – because it involved deliberately picking fights with your own side in order to convince right-wing voters you weren’t as left-wing as they thought. But that is starkly different to disagreeing with your own side and saying that when asked. Obama, for example, may have not moved fast enough on issues like DADT and legislation to deal with climate change, but he hasn’t gone out to pick fights with the left to placate right-wingers. – Read more

Polls confirm: AV will help Coalition parties, not Labour – Left Futures
By Jon Lansman

Whilst the latest YouGov poll, in line with almost all other recent polls, shows Labour just ahead of the Tories (41% to 40%), with the LibDems trailing badly (at 7%), the most worrying news is about AV. In their recent polls, the remaining Liberal Democrat supporters say they would prefer a Conservative government to a Labour one by 51% to 16%. That means AV would help the Lib Dems and the Tories, not Labour. – Read more

Prediciting the next crash – Left Foot Forward
By Stephen Fitzpatrick

What if an early warning system existed that could raise the alarm on the next financial crisis? What if such a network already existed before the crisis, but we simply didn’t know where to look? It would certainly have been helpful to politicians and regulators in the UK.

There were signs for those prepared to look for them. Some UK journalists such as the BBC’s Robert Peston and the Financial Times’s Gillian Tett should be mentioned in dispatches. A few City of London professionals such as private equity mogul Jon Moulton voiced his deep misgivings about the extent of leverage in financial institutions globally, long before the crisis broke. – Read more

Dear Ed, remember that party members are not normal – Labour Uncut
By Tom Harris

Dear Ed,

2011 will be a tough year for you and for our party.

Remember when we last spoke, you asked me what I thought we needed to do in order to win the next election? Having given the subject some thought since then, I think I can now flesh out my original, admittedly unsatisfying, response of “win more seats than the Tories”.

Before being able to answer your question, however, it seems sensible to ask why we lost the last election. A recent YouGov poll of ordinary voters concluded that the three main reasons were Labour’s record on immigration, the damage the recession did to our economic credibility, and the personal unpopularity of your predecessor, Gordon Brown. – Read more

Europe Proves Tricky Again for Cameron – Honeyball Buzz
By Mary Honeyball MEP

Last week the coalition government’s Europe Bill was voted through the first stage of the parliamentary process. The bill is the result of Cameron’s promise to the eurosceptic wing of his party to hold a referendum in the instance of any further treaty changes and to ‘enshrine the primacy of parliamentary sovereignty’.

I have followed the progress of this particular policy with interest as it seems an area where the Tory party and coalition government are liable to run in to difficulties. And I was proved right when the eurosceptic wing, whom the bill was trying to appease, stated loudly and clearly that the bill did not go far enough. – 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.