Ed’s inbox – February 23rd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

The time for another Kosovo – Progress
By Luke Akehurst

I was heartened by Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy’s interview this week reminding Labour members ‘you have a responsibility beyond your own borders’ and that there remains a powerful case for liberal interventionism.

Murphy said:

“If Kosovo were to happen in 2017, so we’re out of Afghanistan, I don’t want to get into a position where we would say, post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan, ‘we couldn’t do another Kosovo’.” – Read more.

Blair, Libya and the calculus of evil – Hopi Sen
By Hopi Sen

I don’t know enough about Libya to discuss wha’s happening there, but domestically it has rapidly become clear that what is happening in Libya is entirely Tony Blair’s fault for not invading North Africa when Colonel Gadaffi renounced his development programmes for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

It is impressive to see so many British critics of Liberal Interventionism come to the conclusion that we are far too soft on regimes that repress the rights of their people. – Read more.

Remember Mohamed Bouazizi – Labour Uncut
By Tom Watson

Every man’s pride has its price. In the case of Tarek el-Tayyib Mohamed Ben Bouazizi, it was the right to sell apples in the street. When even that was taken away, he killed himself by self-immolation.

His suicide sparked an uprising the world is still witnessing on the new, internet-enabled channels of the revolution.

Do not forget the name of Mohamed Bouazizi. David Cameron, on his trip to the Middle East, should be announcing a monument to him in London, lest we forget. – Read more.

The NHS – Cameron’s Albatross – Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
By Sue Marsh

It’s early 2010 and Cameron is a worried man. That 22 point lead of last year has slipped away, slowly and inexorably until a poll or two show the two main parties with just a 1 or 2 point gap.

Not only is a majority looking less and less likely, but another Labour win is now a real possibility.

Only one thing will turn it around and at the start of a brand new year, Cameron plays the only card that might allow his party a shot at power. “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS” he claims and promises to ring fence NHS spending. Focus groups have told him that Conservatives are still not trusted on this issue and unless he changes it, he won’t win. There will be no “cuts to front line services” and there will be no “top down re-organisation.” – Read more.

How US workers are fighting the assault on union rights – Liberal Conspiracy
By Matthew McGregor

American trade unions and community organisations are rallying against Republican plans in Wisconsin to end any meaningful collective bargaining, in the first of what is likely to be a series of set piece battles against right-wing Governors and US Congress.

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker says that his attacks on public service worker’s unions are essential to his plans to cut the state’s budget deficit. This comes after he promised billions of dollars in tax cuts and loopholes for corporations in the November 2010 election. – 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.