Ed’s inbox: January 31st

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

George Galloway: some massacres are more equal than others – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

Hypocrite George Galloway did the media rounds this weekend, telling anyone who would listen how bad Hosni Mubarak’s Egyptian regime is. This would be received with no small irony elsewhere in the Middle East and South Asia given his fondness for other dictators. Galloway previously defended Pervez Musharaf’s 1999 military coup in Pakistan, saying “Only the armed forces can really be counted on to hold such a country together.” But the Egyptian military, it seems, are a different matter – Read more

AV – who cares? The whole debate’s a waste of time and money – Labour Uncut
By Michael Dugher

In September 2009 I was asked to conduct the traditional pre-briefing for broadcasters of the leader’s speech to the party conference. I remember reporting back to Gordon Brown’s other advisers that I had just “had my balls fried” by journalists about a line in the speech committing Labour to hold a referendum on the alternative vote. There was much confusion. The journalists wanted to know why having a referendum on AV had anything to do with the need for political reform after the MPs expenses scandal. They also wanted to know whether Labour would be campaigning for a “yes” vote, or whether we were simply committing to giving people the choice to move to AV or not. “Oh we’re definitely in favour of AV”, said one policy wonk. “No we’re bloody not,” said a political adviser, “large parts of the PLP are against and it hasn’t gone through the NEC yet”. – Read more

Day of shame on NHS – Left Futures
By Michael Meacher

We were told by an airbrushed David Cameron in a Tory election poster just 8 months ago: “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”. We now know there will be £15-20bn cuts within 4 years. He also pledged repeatedly “to stop the top-down reorganisation of the NHS”. Just 2 months after the election we were presented with by far the biggest, most risky and destructinve reorganisation in the NHS’ history, with no consultation on the principles whatever, only on how they would be implemented. Following tuition fees, abolishing universal child benefit and hiking VAT, this is the worst example yet of this Government’s calculated dishonesty. – Read more

How Labour can regain its trust on the economy again (LC poll) – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

The lessons that Labour takes from the financial crisis is an ongoing battle – against the Tories and within the party too.

The argument made by many on the Labour right is that unless the party regains trust on being competent with the economy again, it won’t return to power. This is true. But the real question is how it lost that trust and what lessons we can learn from that. I commissioned our own polling for Liberal Conspiracy to show how this case is made badly with existing polling, and how limited questions suit a specific agenda. – Read more

Top pollster warns: “Labour should be doing better” – Left Foot Forward
By Shamik Das

YouGov president Peter Kellner today warned Labour they should be “miles ahead” in the opinion polls as anger over the coalition cuts continues to grow – rather than “a measly five points” in front of the Conservatives. Labour, however, have been ahead in 23 consecutive YouGov polls conducted since mid-December, leading 43%-39% in the weekend Sunday Times survey, with yesterday’s Angus Reid/Sunday Express poll giving Labour an 11-point lead – 43%-32% with the Lib Dems on 11%, leaving the coaltion and Labour neck-and-neck. – 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.