Morning Report – April 7th

The sun is out again today in Westminster, although as it’s parliamentary recess most of the MPS aren’t getting to enjoy it, but the researchers certainly will be, and the mood is certainly bright and breezy. Not everyone’s having a good time of it though, and if you’re looking for gloom at the moment then where better to look than Nick Clegg. He’s at the centre of today’s most eyebrow-raising story, which is an interview he’s given to socialite Jemima Khan, who is guest editing the New Statesman. There’s a certain “woe is me” feel to it that is reminiscent in many ways of some of the interviews that Gordon Brown was giving at the lowest ebb of his popularity. To think a year ago we hadn’t even seen Clegg-mania yet, nevermind Clegg-phobia. People would just say “Nick who?” – how he must long for those days to return.

“Blue Labour” icons Maurice Glassman and Jon Cruddas have written an article in today’s Guardian on the porters of Billingsgate fish market. The eagle-eyed among you may recall that Ed Miliband referred to the same fish porters in his Fabian speech earlier this year (having visited them with Cruddas). If Blue Labour is exerting a strong pull on Ed then he might be tempetd to comment.

The last few days have been about the shame of unpaid internships, especially in parliament. Yesterday we discussed the role of IPSA in the current system, and the underfunding of MPs. The house of commons is facing a 17% this year, so the speaker perhaps isn’t being too smart in choosing to increase his office costs by 6%. A man constantly under threat of being unseated by angry Tories should be more careful than this.

Elsewhere, there’s an excellent post by former Labour Party General Secretary Peter Watt over at Labour Uncut this morning on the perils of the job as the race to succeed Ray (soon to be Lord) Collins begins. We will of course be covering the race on LabourList.