Ed’s inbox – February 10th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

The price of Jim Devine’s fraud – Left Foot Forward
By Daniel Elton

The former Labour MP for Livingston, Jim Devine, has been found guilty of defrauding the taxpayer of £8,385 by submitting false receipts. He was today sentenced to 12 months in jail. This can now been added the sums taken criminally by David Chaytor (£22,000) and Eric Illsley (£14,000) to a total of almost £45,000 stolen from the taxpayer.

This is a double-edged outrage. First and foremost it is an illegal and immoral act, a theft of taxayers’ hard-earned money that they would have expected on to be spent on the country’s governance; national and economic security; or its social fabric. – Read more.

A practical, popular, socialist policy on high pay – Labour Uncut
By Dan Cooke

It does not seem unfair to suggest that Sir Peter Tapsell, first elected on the coat-tails of Harold Macmillan in 1959, is not an obvious candidate for Ed Miliband’s “new generation”. By the same token, this enduring embodiment of the squirarchy would not commonly be associated with notions of “levelling down”, the “politics of envy” or – in language less likely to be heard within the walls of the Carlton Club – action on excessive pay.

Yet in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Sir Peter – wittingly or otherwise – took the first major step in sketching out a meaningful prospectus for the high pay commission promised under a future Labour government. A prospectus that the Labour front bench has signally failed to provide so far. – Read more.

These cuts aren’t fair and we blame Pickles, say LibDem council leaders – Next Left
By Sunder Katwala

Many of the most senior Liberal Democrats in local government have attacked the government’s local government spending settlement, publicly declaring no confidence in the fairness of the government’s approach to cuts and in Communities Secretary Eric Pickles who the LibDems accuse of “gunboat diplomacy” in an extraordinary letter to The Times (£).

The Times describes the letter from 17 leaders of local authorities and 77 further LibDem group leaders as an “open revolt over the scale and pace of cuts to frontline local services”. It is by far the most significant coordinated expression of Liberal Democrat discontent with the Coalition government so far. – Read more.

Did Costcutter reputation inspire Cameron invite to Darren Gough? – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

With Darren Gough spurning David Cameron’s advances, turning down the opportunity to be the Tories’ candidate in Barnsley Central, Scrapbook wonders whether the cricketer’s “cost cutting” reputation preceded him.

With more than 1,500 Barnsley Council employees being informed their jobs are at risk, Gough’s franchise as the public face of the Costcutter supermarket chain could be extended to defending vertiginous budget cuts in South Yorkshire. – Read more.

Why an export-led economic recovery looks more unlikely now – Liberal Conspiracy
By Richard Exell

Yesterday’s trade figures show that the trade deficit for goods and services hit £4.8 bn in December and the deficit for goods alone was £9.2 bn; both were the worst figures ever. The annual trade deficit for 2010 was £46.2 bn, up from £29.7 bn in 2009. The £51 bn annual surplus on trade in services was down £1.7 bn from 2009. The government’s hopes for an export-led recovery can’t stand many more results like this. – 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.