Ed’s inbox – May 11th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Everybody is ignoring us, because we are weird – Labour Uncut
By Anthony Painter

As Kevin Meagher noted on Uncut this morning, the canvas on which Labour is currently painting by numbers is wearing rather thin. A bit of blue, a bit of purple, some red, something of a strange colour called ‘new’, finish it off with a bit of a flourish. Stand back and marvel at the complete, er, mess.

In the meantime, the Conservatives emerge largely unscathed from their first electoral test since the general election. OK, they emerged completely unscathed. And Labour has spent the year talking to itself and in the seminar room (in fact, the last four years). Now the results of the experiment are about to be unleashed. There will be a deafening silence across the land. – Read more.

“Snotty Tory” attempts to throw female MP out of members-only lift – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

In what is sure to be added to the long list of anecdotal sexism on the parliamentary estate, a middle-aged male MP attempted to throw a younger female colleague out of a lift reserved for members this afternoon. It seems our villain assumed 33 year-old Stella Creasy was a researcher rather than the, erm, MP for Walthamstow. – Read more.

When will Tories admit their ‘growth strategy’ isn’t working? – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

The political media has largely ignored the Bank of England report today but its sentiment is stark, and illustrates how badly Osborne is getting it wrong.

The BoE has cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy again, and says the short-term outlook has deteriorated. As we’ve been saying here for months, that means Osborne’s “growth strategy” is failing miserably. And why…? – Read more.

When Blue Labour met the Fabians – Next Left
By Tim Horton

In a packed pub in Crouch End last night, I had a cracking debate against Maurice Glasman on Blue Labour and the Fabian tradition, a tradition which – if you’ve read some of Maurice’s commentary of late – you would think is the source of all Labour’s problems.

It is of course wrong to characterise Fabiansim as obsessed with centralisation; GDH Cole and his ‘guild socialism’ are just as much part of our tradition as the Webbs. But with voices from across Labour noisily attacking ‘the state’, a defence of it was long overdue. And, on behalf of Fabians everywhere, I was only too happy to step up to the plate. – Read more.

Alexander: Labour should see Lib Dems “as the hors d’œuvre not the main course” – Left Foot Forward
By Shamik Das

Douglas Alexander has cautioned Labour against rejoicing too much in the demise of the Liberal Democrats – warning that the Conservatives will be the biggest beneficiary of a collapse in the Lib Dem vote at the next election, and that Labour must ensure it “has a better story to tell about Britain’s future” than the Tories when that election comes.

In an interview with Progress, the shadow foreign secretary also said Labour’s disastrous performance in Scotland last week was because “large numbers of middle class voters chose the SNP and rejected Labour”. – 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.