Ed’s inbox – March 25th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

TUC march: I don’t predict a riot – Liberal Conspiracy
By Dave Osler

Not only are my days as a street fighting man well behind me, but daddy is taking girls aged 10 and 8 on the TUC anti-cuts march tomorrow. The last thing I want is for the headbangers to kick anything off.

Yet today’s papers are full of dire predictions that a ‘violent minority’ are hell-bent on ‘hijacking a peaceful protest’. In particular, the Guardian is hyping up an article by some ex-copper on the website of a rightwing think tank, which contends that the Old Bill have ‘strong intelligence’ that ‘extremist groups are planning illegal acts of violence’ tomorrow. – Read more.

Astonishing leaflet claims “no frontline cuts” for Lib Dem councils – Political Scrapbook
By James Dixon

As date of May 5th looms large in the minds of Liberal Democrat councillors, the party is resorting to blatant lies and distortion to stave off electoral decimation. Writing to residents in Manchester [download leaflet], the party has made the astonishing claim that there are no cuts to frontline services in Birmingham, Newcastle and Sheffield City Councils!

“Other councils suffering almost identical cuts in funding are protecting their frontline services” – Read more.

Why we march – Progress
By Paul Richards

There’s the inevitable breakaway marches, heading in the direction of Oxford Street, the City of London, or any other bastion of capitalism, where a dangerous cocktail of stupid, idealistic violence-junkies will meet a no-nonsense response from the Met.

That leads to a third ritual – the complaints about the media coverage, when a few dozen anarchists, smashing stuff up, will dominate the TV pictures, while the thousands of nurses, teachers and families with children marching along the official route are ignored. Underpinning all of this, is the greatest ritual of all – the debate about whether it makes any difference. – Read more.

“Assessment” is a dirty word joke – Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
By Sue Marsh

Life really is the best comedy of all isn’t it?

Today, Labour are holding the Fresh Ideas event in Nottingham. It will be the largest Q&A session a political party has ever held. http://fresh-ideas.org.uk/

I tried to submit this :

“Admit that Employment Support Allowance is not working. Work Capability Assessments are unfit for purpose. Move to consultant led assessments and start treating vulnerable people with dignity again.” – Read more.

Brains behind Conservative-UUP link sacked in “sex for access” scandal – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

The architect of the Conservative Party’s alliance with the Ulster Unionist Party has been sacked for abusing his position in return for sexual favours. As head of policy for the UUP Brian Crowe worked closely with CCHQ and Tory front benchers to develop the controversial link between the two parties. The Belfast Telegraph reports:

The Ulster Unionist politico, who is right at the heart of Government in Northern Ireland, described in a series of online conversations about “grooming” lobbyists before suggesting to them that he could carry out their wishes in exchange for sexual favours.

Crowe bombarded a lobbyist with 18 obscene photographs of himself, some emailed from his hotel room while on a taxpayer-funded visit to the USA, after having met her on an internet chat room. – 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.