Ed’s inbox – April 20th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Ermine parachutes for Liberal Democrat losers – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

With the majority of Liberal Democrat politicians braced for impact on May 5th it appears some can still afford to be sanguine. Rumours abound that two of the Liberal Democrats’ most prominent losers of the last year are to be given peerages by Nick Clegg.

With his minority administration on Sheffield City Council teetering on the brink, Paul Scriven refused to sign the letter from more than 90 Lib Dem leaders criticising the scale of the cuts – despite believing that the pace of reductions is too fast. Nick Clegg’s “closet ally in local government” may soon be wiping away his tears with luxurious stoat fur. – Read more.

Local councillors – could you pick them out of a line-up? – Left Foot Forward
By Dominic Browne

Only a quarter of people believe that their local council “addresses the needs of their community” and as little as 13 per cent of voters feel that they have the power to influence decisions that impact their neighbourhood, new research has shown.

The ‘Connecting Communties’ report, conducted ahead of the local elections on May 5th, also shows that more than two thirds of voters can’t identify any of their local councilors.

The online survey of 2,226 adults was conducted by YouGov on behalf of the local social networking site streetlife.com. – Read more.

We should recall Parliament, but Douglas is sitting on his hands
By Tom Watson

There are few issues more important for our Parliament than sending British troops to a hostile country to support an unknown opposition fighting a raggedy civil war against a brutal dictator.

Questioning him on Friday 18 March after the government statement on Libya, David Winnick asked the prime minister: – Read more.

Cameron’s vindictiveness re GB reveals weakness not strength – Alastair Campbell
By Alastair Campbell

I have no idea if Gordon Brown is interested in being the next head of the IMF, no idea if it is true that current incumbent Dominique Strauss-Khan fancies himself as the Socialist Party challenger to President Sarkozy at the next election, and no idea if GB would be a frontrunner if and when DSK moves on.

What I do know is that David Cameron’s pre-emptive strike reveals a petty nasty vindictiveness that does him and his office no good. I know their entire economic strategy is based on the lie that GB is to blame for the global financial crash, but to take that to this extreme goes beyond party politics and into the realm of putting narrow party interest before possible national interest. – Read more.

Understanding the conservatism of the left – Next Left
By Anthony Painter

The debate about Labour’s future is in a terrible state of confusion. On the one side we have the ascendent blue Labourites or what is perhaps the more instructive tag of the communitarian left – which has mainly inherited Blairite love of authority, with an added layer of tradition, now combined with a critique of its liberal economics. In their mistrust of the state they have found common ground with ‘purple bookers’ or the old (or new?) progressives. Somewhere floating in the middle are the liberal social democrats. A caricatured Brownism has been their inheritance and they are struggling to establish a clear voice as a result. – 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.