Ed’s inbox – February 21st

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Boycotting the Census is a counter-productive move – Liberal Conspiracy
By Don Paskini

During March, people across the UK will be receiving forms for the Census. There are calls by groups such as Stop the War coalition for people to boycott the census, on grounds ranging from protest against state intrusion to concerns about the involvement of US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

It’s perfectly reasonable for campaigners to use the fact that the Census is coming up to campaign on these issues.

But a boycott of the Census is the wrong way to go about this. – Read more.

Tebbit’s extraordinary rant about a “Big Society gay wedding” – Left Foot Forward
By Shamik Das

Norman Tebbit, in between ranting that the Arab world “do not ‘do’ democracy”, defending the poll tax, criticising the government for backing down over its plans to sell off forests and describing Ken Clarke and Nick Clegg as “Euro-collaboraters” [sic], has had an extraordinary dig at David Cameron over the Big Society and gay marriage. – Read more.

Let’s learn from the Tories and detoxify our brand – Labour Uncut
By Peter Watt

There has been much debate since the general election about whether the toxicity of the Conservative brand led to them falling short of an overall majority. Proponents of this theory hold that while David Cameron had gone some way towards detoxifying the Conservative brand, he had not gone far enough. The result was that, although the public had decided that they certainly didn’t want a Labour government, they hadn’t yet decided that they wanted a Conservative one. – Read more.

Why Labour would be wrong to chase the ‘centre-ground’ – Left Futures
By Darrell Goodliffe

As soon as I read an article which states something like “the centre ground in politics is perennially important”, my hackles rise. This is largely because I don’t believe in the existence of such a thing. To me, it’s as real as Camelot or the Tooth Fairy. Centrist politics and ‘the centre ground’ are the subjective creations of ideologues that seek to impose upon people their notion of where a consensus should lie. It is a craftily designed weapon that aims at the undemocratic exclusion of other arguments through them being labelled as extreme, taboo and beyond the pale; to be excluded from debate and ‘rational’ discourse at all costs. It shows how tyrannical, by its very nature, ‘consensus’ politics actually is. – Read more.

Bill Aitken quits over rape comments – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

The writing was on the wall. Having survived as the chair of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee for more than a week following his outrageous comments on a gang rape, pressure from women’s charities and opposition parties has forced his hand.

A motion tabled by Scottish Green Patrick Harvie said:

That the Parliament condemns the attitude that it considers was shown by Bill Aitken MSP on the subject of rape during a recent interview with the Sunday Herald newspaper; considers that Mr Aitken’s comments during the interview betray a disregard for the seriousness of rape and imply support for the view that a victim can be held responsible for this most vicious crime … and calls for Mr Aitken’s immediate resignation. – 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.