Ed’s inbox: January 26th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

The politics of stagflation – ippr
By Nick Pearce

Yesterday’s shocking figures for GDP in the last quarter of 2010 – showing a contraction of 0.5% (or 0% if the bad weather effects are stripped out) – have changed the dynamics of British politics. As most of the newspapers make clear today, these numbers have shaken the confidence of the Coalition and raised the stakes over its chosen deficit reduction strategy. If the economic outlook worsens – and Ed Balls was careful not to predict a double-dip recession yesterday – the Coalition’s big arguments about the deficit will be seriously undermined. Labour will make up lost political ground and, as one senior Labour figure put it to me yesterday, Ed Balls may end up looking like Churchill. – Read more

Osborne’s intellectual leap of faith – Left Foot Forward
By Will Straw

It is widely documented that George Osborne has no ‘Plan B’. The Government’s entire economic strategy is based on a belief that cutting back the deficit will free up the private sector to create jobs and growth.

Left Foot Forward has examined the flaws in the theory of ‘expansionary fiscal contraction’ before. Today, The Times’ Anatole Kaletsky has a must read piece dismantling the similar theory of ‘Ricardian Equivalence’ … using Ricardo’s own words. – Read more

Mervyn King treading too close to political lines – Alastair Campbell
By Alastair Campbell

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King is straying perilously close to political territory these days. It is one thing to make statements aimed at helping the Bank fulfil its remit of meeting an inflation target – something it is currently failing to do. It is quite another to chime in behind the Tory government’s ‘no alternative’ defence of cuts, wage restraint and general misery.

The status of the Bank is crucial to economic stability and reputation. The status of the Governor is crucial to the status of the Bank. One of the bits from my latest volume of diaries picked out by The Guardian was Mrs Thatcher giving TB a lecture on how she felt Gordon Brown as Chancellor was not showing enough respect to then Governor Eddie George. That respect has to cross parties and it has to cover as wide a business and public canvas as it can. – Read more

Labour selections get go ahead – Left Futures
By Jon Lansman

Labour’s national executive, meeting yesterday, has given the go ahead to parliamentary selections in 26 marginal seats which the party lost last year. The decision reverses an earlier decision reported here, and follows pressure from constituency parties eager to start campaigning against the Tory-led government. The seats chosen are all in southern England (outside London) and the Midlands. The reason no seats have been chosen in Labour heartlands in Scotland and Wales, London and the North is that, since the effect of future boundary changes may be considerable, the party wishes to offer protection to sitting MPs who may be displaced or find that their seats become less secure for Labour. Party members may well feel that campaigning now is more important than the interests of MPs. – Read more

My Big Fat Gypsy dichotomy – An EastEnd Girl
By Hannah McFaull

Those of you in the UK can’t have missed the current Channel 4 programme ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’, a series of five documentaries examining traveller life and culture. Following a one-off show last year which proved massively popular, the series takes more of an in-depth look at the births, marriages and deaths of a highly secretive community. It focuses on the wedding ceremonies of a number of very young traveller women; following them as they plan their weddings, buy their phenomenally extravagant dresses and leave the family home for the first time. – 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.