Ed’s inbox – March 22nd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Miliband can own the future in a way that Cameron can’t – Labour Uncut
By Jonathan Todd

The longer Gordon Brown was prime minister, the harder it became, sadly, to picture him in post at the 2012 Olympics. His purchase on the future evaporated. Ed Miliband has to recover this to return to government. He has to convince that he has the answers to the challenges of 2015 and beyond. And personify these answers.

While his speech to the resolution foundation looked towards this, the past is always knocking incessant, trying to break through into the present. As Jim Murphy told the progress political school, in politics, the past is always the context, the future the contest. The spectre of Iraq hangs over Libya. The fiscal management of the last government colours arguments about the approach of this. In many areas – NHS, schools, welfare and, increasingly, foreign affairs – David Cameron presents himself as more heir to Blair than a return to the 1980s. Labour begs to differ. The public is uncertain. – Read more.

How not to talk about cuts: Whitehall staff let rip in training documents – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

In correspondence with the euphemisms for cuts being road tested on an unsuspecting British public, workers in Whitehall have been subjected to saccharine Newspeak on redundancies.

Internal training documents seen by Scrapbook show that Whitehall mandarins are educating senior managers on how not to infuriate staff when talking about job losses.

Materials include bad examples of internal spin accompanied by hilarious comments from exasperated staff: – Read more.

Obama anxious to keep his toes out of Libyan water – Michael Tomasky
By Michael Tomasky

US presidents who get involved in wars can very easily come unstuck and Obama is acutely aware of the dangers

The famous axiom in America that “politics stops at the water’s edge” is meant to convey the notion that while the two parties may spar over domestic matters, when it comes to foreign affairs, there are no Democrats and Republicans, only Americans. The saying was coined by Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee when Harry Truman was president. It was arrant fiction then, as it is now, but the difference is that it used to be a fiction Washington wanted to believe. – Read more.

It’s Europe that will kill the Tory NHS reforms – Left Foot Forward
By Andrew Georgiou

In light of David Miliband’s LSE lecture on the decline of social democracy in Europe it is clear there has never been a more important time for progressives to stand up for their greatest achievements. The NHS is at the forefront of this. Inflated rhetoric about broken promises and the like, as gratifying as it sounds, will not stop the Tories NHS bill becoming law. The real opportunity lies in the question of Europe. – Read more.

Nick Harvey vs George Osborne: How much does a long piece of string cost? – Tom Watson MP
By Tom Watson

This morning, on BBC Breakfast, Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey gave a revealing interview . He speculated that ground troops may be used in Libya and that they may be there for some time:

Mr Harvey was also questioned on whether there would be a ground force entering Libya, and whether it would be an occupying force:

“I don’t think we would at this stage rule anything in or rule anything out….It’s something that the twists and turns of the next few days and weeks will determine, what any individual country puts into this fray….I think it’s a question of interpretation where the deployment of ground troops becomes the landing of an occupying force and I just don’t think its productive to speculate on that but I cannot foresee it on any significant scale.” – 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.