Ed’s inbox – April 4th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Coalition savaged by dead sheep and Salmond – Left Foot Forward
By Ed Jacobs

One of the Conservative party’s elder statesmen has used an interview with BBC Radio Wales to accuse the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition of not being stable

Geoffrey-Howe-Alex-SalmondAs David Cameron sought to give a boost to his party’s fortunes in May’s elections by telling party activists in Swansea that the Conservatives were delivering for Wales, the former chancellor, Welsh born Lord Howe of Aberavon outlined his concerns over the stability of the government. – Read more.

‘Tories planned to smear Andrew Lansley rapper’ – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

Paul Waugh at PoliticsHome has an interesting post on how Cameron lost the debate on NHS changes by failing to persuade anyone of the benefits.

But at the end he adds:

I’m told that the Conservatives were so worried by the Lansley rap that there was a plan to get CCHQ to troll the comments on YouTube and call the rapper a dangerous lefty. Surely this can’t be true….? – Read more.

Osborne’s fear of credit rating agencies is costing Britain jobs – Labour Uncut
By James Watkins

Whether voiced by George Osborne at the dispatch box or by Andrew Neil on the This Week sofa, the message is the same: it is too late to change course on the massive deficit reduction plans, otherwise the markets would be spooked. This new line is a response to the growing success of the belated Labour campaign that the cuts go “too far, too fast”.

So how does Labour now move from the government’s line that the cuts are needed to tackle the “mess” of the Labour years to the fatalistic line that it is too late to change course. The heart of the counter attack is to expose the fallacy that the views of credit rating agencies should always be heeded. – Read more.

Why are women being hit hardest by pensions reforms? – Progress
By Seema Malhotra

The debate could not come at a more important time. Today the government is publishing proposals for a ‘universal state pension’ which could make a positive difference to women and carers’ pensions. But last week when the Pensions Bill went through report stage in the House of Lords, an amendment tabled by Lord McKenzie of Luton which aimed to stop the increase in the state pension age from 65 to 66 before 2020 was narrowly lost by 12 votes.

The pensions bill plans to raise the state pension age to 66 by 2020, and brings forward the timetable to equalise men and women’s state pensions. Under the Pensions Act 2007, secured after Turner Commission and the establishment of a consensus on the principles of pension reform for a long lasting settlement, the increase was due to take effect between 2024 and 2026. The bill will bring forward the increase for both men and women so that by 2020, both men and women will be retiring at age 66. – Read more.

YouGov poll says the public support UK Uncut tactics – Left Futures
By Jon Lansman

A YouGov poll out today reveals that about three-quarters of the public support the tactics of civil disobedience adopted by UK Uncut. In answer to the question of whether “peaceful civil disobedience (such as people staging sit-ins or occupying shops)… was an acceptable or unacceptable way of protesting,” 73% of people said it was acceptable and only 22% said it was unacceptable. – 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.