Ed’s inbox – February 7th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Five Tory ‘cuts’ that will actually cost us money – Liberal Conspiracy
By Jon Stone

Back in October I outlined five irregularities that support the idea that the Tories’ cuts are ideologically motivated, rather than a necessity. But a lot of these ideological changes that are being packaged as ‘necessary cuts’ are actually going to cost the country money, or not save anything at all. Here are five of the most high profile ones. – Read more.

I love New Labour and am proud of what we did – Labour Uncut
By John Woodcock

The thing is, I love what New Labour has stood for and I am deeply, deeply proud of what we did in government.

And I just don’t buy into the idea that that should be a controversial thing to think or to say. In some Labour GCs, maybe (though probably fewer than many think). Perhaps even for the dwindling number of journalists still interested in finding Labour splits, who may wrongly think that puts me at odds with my leader.

But not with the public who voted for us. – Read more.

Brian Coleman slammed for “completely excessive” meal – Tory Troll
By Adam Bienkov

The man charged with making up to 25% cuts to the London Fire Brigade splashed thousands of pounds from the budget on a “completely excessive” meal for his colleagues.

Chairman of the Fire Authority Brian Coleman used £2338 from the Brigade’s communications budget to pay for flowers and a three-course lunch for a retiring colleague. – Read more.

Integration after the rhetoric – Next Left
By Ed Wallis

David Cameron’s multiculturalism speech at the weekend caused quite the stir, despite not saying anything particularly new.

The press releases and the hoo-hah mask the fact there is a fair amount of common ground in the broad critique of multiculturalism. What the debate often lacks, however, is the detail of how to move beyond the speechifying and make integration a policy reality. – Read more.

Liberal Democrats: forest sale is a “money making scam” – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

With 460,000 people signing 38 Degrees’ petition and Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper being pelted with eggs at a public meeting, Caroline Spelman looked to signal a possible retreat over the proposed sale of 258,000 hectares of woodland this weekend.

The Liberal Democrats’ reputation for telling voters in different areas different things is hard-won. While opposition to the woodland sell-off has been described in Westminster as “scaremongering” a similar sale of forest in Scotland was dismissed as a “money making scam”. The plan to “sell off the family silver” was subject to a fierce campaign from Liberals north of the border. – 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.