Ed’s inbox – February 9th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Parliamentary Labour Party Rules OK. But not if you believe in accountability – Left Futures
By Jon Lansman

The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is not big on accountability – command and control goes way back before Blair extended it to the rest of the Labour Party, although MPs’ willingness to use even the limited levers available did rather evaporate during the New Labour years. But it looks like the PLP may abandon still more levers when it reviews its rules next week.

Under the proposals of an unelected committee chaired by Margaret Beckett, the PLP looks set to abandon a requirement that an incoming Labour PM include elected shadow cabinet members in the new cabinet. Going too could be the limit on the size of the payroll vote (currently restricted to one-fifth of the PLP) and a requirement to have junior appointments ratified by a vote of the PLP. – Read More.

It’s still ‘who you know’ not ‘what you know’ – LabourList
By Hazel Blears MP

Andrew Neil’s Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain documentary a couple of weeks ago confirmed what most of us already knew – that politics, and parliament in particular, remains dominated by people drawn from a narrow pool that is not representative of our communities.

Research shows that 10% of the 2010 intake of MPs came from just 13 schools, and that 33% of all MPs are privately educated, compared to just 7% of the total population. All three party leaders were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, and the government currently includes 12 Old Etonians. It’s no wonder that many people still look at parliament and think ‘that’s not for people like me.’ – Read More.

Are Politicians Deaf to the Sick and Disabled? – Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
By Sue Marsh

So, it’s welfare reform on the agenda today. Iain Duncan-Smith will address the Select Committee this morning on Universal Credit and Liam Byrne, Labour’s new Shadow Dept of Work and Pensions minister will outline Labour’s position

How Labour came to this position is a mystery. Certainly to any of us campaigning for an overhaul of Employment Support Allowance (ESA), radical changes to the assessment processes,and a new consultation on the proposals to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and replace it with Personal Independence Payment (PIP) whilst cutting numbers by at least 20%. – Read More.

Why I u-turned and joined the Labour party – Liberal Conspiracy
By Ellie Mae

Yesterday morning I got into a Twitter exchange with Ed Miliband (or the cyborg that controls his account), in which I declared I would never again be able to trust the Labour Party.

By the evening, I had joined. Given the scale of my U-turn, I should fit in well. So, what gives? I hear you ask.

What indeed. Well, in short, it was a pub conversation with a couple of Labourites. After a few hours of deliberating, I made a beer-fuelled acknowledgement that, in the last six months, my priorities have changed. – Read More.

Banks let off the hook on lending – Left Foot Forward
By Duncan Weldon

The long awaited outcome of the government’s “Project Merlin” deal with the banks has been published. Questions are already being asked about the failure of government to get tough on bonuses and the low level of transparency on pay, but perhaps most worrying is the failure to deal with the central question of bank lending to support the recovery.

Chancellor George Osborne has been keen to talk up that the banks have agreed to extend loans worth £190 billion to UK business in 2011, up from £178bn in 2010 – but there are two very important caveats to 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.