Ed’s inbox – April 15th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Ed M’s poll problem – The Waugh Room
By Paul Waugh

With a headline lead over the Tories of six points today, you could say Labour is doing OK (though not brilliantly) in the polls.

But buried in today’s YouGov/Sun tracker is a stat that ought to cause some concern in Team Miliband.

Less than half of Labour voters (47%) think that Ed Mili is a “leader of real ability”. This compares to 70% of Tories who think that David Cameron meets that description. (The news is bad for Clegg, by the way, with just 32% of Lib Dems thinking he’s a leader of real ability). – Read more.

Gillian Duffy was not ‘used’ by Labour – Comment is Free
By Simon Danczuk MP

Last year, despite Labour struggling in the polls and Gordon Brown’s unfortunate encounter with Gillian Duffy on the eve of the general election, I was able to overturn a Liberal Democrat majority and become Rochdale’s MP. There was only one way I could do this and that was to gain the trust of local people. I did this by knocking on thousands of doors and slowly reconnecting Labour with the community.

This is a long journey and there are still a lot more bridges to be built. Duffy, who came to epitomise the disillusioned Labour voter, is one of many people I’ve had long discussions with to convince them that Labour is on their side. – Read more.

Donald Trump would be a really horrible president – Michael Tomasky
By Michael Tomasky

Yesterday, in a radio interview with journalist Fred Dicker on an Albany, New York station, Donald Trump said:

“I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”

Now, some of our conservatives are going to write in to say, what’s wrong with that? People say “the Catholics” or “the Jews.”

Nonsense. They know very well what’s wrong with it. I bet they don’t say it themselves. You don’t say “the blacks,” or for that matter “the whites” or “the browns” or “the yellows.” THE + COLOR = TROUBLE. – Read more.

Former City of London MP claims “I can’t afford the deposit for a flat” – Political Scrapbook
>By Matthew Zarb-Cousin

Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Gilbert may live to regret his outburst on local radio station Pirate FM, where he claimed that despite his £65,738 salary he could not afford to save for a deposit for a flat in his Cornwall constituency. One might question the wisdom of aligning his personal circumstances with the low-wage economy of the South West given his former role advising Bermuda-based fund managers Fidelity International. – Read more.

Top Libdem Lord attacks Coalition council cuts – Liberal Conspiracy
By Don Paskini

Lord Rennard was the Lib Dem Chief Executive for six years, one of their top campaign strategists for more than twenty years, and is now Chair of the Big Society Commission.

In an interview with Civil Society magazine, he was asked about the impact of cuts by local authorities:

“There’s a clear problem here, and at the very least, it’s to do with phasing. By making the economies very quickly, a number of local authorities will feel that they have to cope with almost all the redundancy costs which they face in the short-term, rather than being able to capitalise them over a much longer term. And they have their statutory obligations, clearly they feel more pressured to cut from voluntary sector support than they do from some of their core services. – 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.