Ed’s inbox: January 27th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Posh & Posher: Economic selection is not academic – Sarah Hayward
By Sarah Hayward

The conclusion from Andrew Neill’s Posh & Posher, that academic selection is the only way for people to compete is deeply flawed. Not least because his argument and evidence was deeply flawed. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc was the only phrase that came to mind as the show concluded.

The post programme debates on twitter and radio programmes have focussed on academic selection without questioning Neill’s evidence. Even if we ignore that during Neill’s 33 years of grammar educated prime ministers (Wilson to Major) the Cabinet and Ministerial ranks were still stuffed with privately educated politicians, surely his conclusion about selection is just far too simplistic. – Read more.

The left wing alternative to nationalisation – Left Futures
By Owen Jones

If ‘typical Labour left policies’ had ever (bizarrely) turned up on ITV’s Family Fortunes, I’d place a pretty safe bet that ‘nationalisation’ would top the poll. But there is something deeply ironic about this, because nationalisation – as conceived and implemented by post-war Labour governments – had very little to do with the Labour left.

It was Peter Mandelson’s granddad and that icon of the Labour Right, Herbert Morrison, who was the architect of Labour’s model of public ownership. The new industries were top-down, bureaucratic public corporations. Many workers felt as alienated from their new employers as they did when they were under private ownership. This wasn’t socialism: it was state capitalism. – Read more.

Movement for Change: Developing responses to the challenges we face – Left Foot Forward
By Blair McDougall

Yesterday we announced that Movement for Change, an experiment launched during David Miliband’s leadership campaign which trained party activists in community organising skills, will be reconstituted in the spring as a permanent home for community organising within the Labour movement. The response from activists has been inspiring – emails from have been flying in from people wanting to get involved.

Of course, there have also been some reservations and questions about the plans as they develop, including one understated critic predicting that we will be a “total, unmitigated catastrophe” for the party. – Read more.

SNP to vote against more powers for Scotland – Political Scrapbook
By Socialist Animal

It doesn’t take a particularly long memory to recall a time when the SNP opposed devolution. Indeed it was only after their poor showing in the 1997 UK General Election that they changed their tune and decide to support devolution for Scotland, as a stepping stone towards independence.

Today the SNP are about to take a step back towards their fundamentalist past by voting AGAINST more powers for the Scottish Parliament. The Scotland Bill, a product of the Calman Commission, looks set to receive cross-party support however the SNP are the only party to table a motion against the bill stating that they regard “the Bill as a whole to be unacceptable”. – Read more.

New league table of shadow cabinet “work rate” – Labour Uncut
By Atul Hatwal

Uncut analysis shows Alexander, Healey, Balls and Murphy lead way in holding government to account

Douglas Alexander, John Healey, Ed Balls and Jim Murphy are the shadow cabinet’s leading campaigners in and out of Parliament, according to a new analysis of the “work rate” of Ed Miliband’s top team. – Read more.

And as an extra treat for you this evening – we spotted this on the Cambridge University Labour Club blog…

Big Society, Banks and Bonuses – Bridging the divide between the City and our communities
By Hazel Blears

During the 2010 General Election campaign, David Cameron told us that the actions of his Government would be underpinned by his idea of a Big Society, which would provide the political philosophy behind the Government’s agenda. Almost 8 months have passed since the creation of the Tory-led Government, and the impression that the Tory Big Society rhetoric is just a smokescreen for a cynical agenda of cuts is growing.

This week’s newspapers have been dominated by reports of concern amongst some senior Tories about the funding gap facing community groups and voluntary sector organisations. A recent report by New Philanthropy Capital estimates at close to £5 billion. The Government is proposing a £100million transition fund for community groups. As the eagle-eyed may have spotted, that transition fund is not going to fill the gap. – 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.