Ed’s inbox – May 12th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Cameron health adviser: NHS to be “shown no mercy” in privatisation – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

One of David Cameron’s most senior health advisers told a conference of health executives that the NHS will be privatised, advising representatives from healthcare companies of an impending goldrush in the wake of Andrew Lansley’s health reforms.

Mark Britnell was NHS director general for commissioning and system management before joining the private sector as global head of health at KPMG. He was recently appointed to a new panel of senior health policy experts by David Cameron, attending their first meeting last week. – Read more.

Flashman buried – Progress Online
By Tom Bage

Regular readers of this column will know that we have been demanding the demise of Flashman for months. We said the prime minister’s alter ego was arrogant. Patronising. Out of touch. Much as they used to in happier times, Downing Street agreed – Progress were right all along.

And so, in a private ceremony on Tuesday night Flashman was encased in fifteen foot of concrete, bound tightly in lead and buried deep under Steve Hilton’s patio. The Combative Cameron had been decommissioned. On Wednesday the Polite PM would return.

Ignore everything else you’ve read on the subject, forget your preconceptions and admit the dirty truth. Yesterday’s PMQs was more boring than it’s been for weeks. I hated Flash intensely but I miss him now he’s gone – in small doses an angry, shouty Cameron was a devastating debating weapon and the stuff sketch writers’ dreams are made of: waspish, haughty, indiscreet and brash. He brought twice as much life to the chamber as the previous PM ever managed. He was funny. And admit it: who here hasn’t woken clammy from that dream where you are standing at the dispatch box, leaning menacingly forward onto your elbow and with the full might of HM Government cheering you on, you fix an enemy MP with a cool stare before quoting Michael Winner adverts to universal media opprobrium? – Read more.

Labour on poverty: the final account – ippr
By Nick Pearce

Under the previous government, the release of the annual poverty and inequality statistics was a major news event, a litmus test of Labour’s social justice credentials. In the early days it showed rapid falls in child and pensioner poverty, but in later years progress stalled – a consequence of less redistribution, slower rises in employment and weaker wage growth for those on lower than average pay.

The current government argues that social mobility, rather than income poverty, is the priority. So there is no great ministerial focus on the figures this year; indeed, many will miss the significance of a DWP press release innocously titled ‘Government response to Households Below Average Income figures’. – Read more.

Why George Lansbury wasn’t Labour’s greatest leader – Next Left
By Sunder Katwala

“I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and disarm the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world: “Do your worst” – George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party, message to the voters in the Fulham East by-election, June 1933.

“This day I believe – 1 October 1935 – is a watershed moment in the history of the party … The removal of Lansbury in 1935 marked the fundamental change in the character of political leadership. The victory of the pragmatists and political operators over the prophets of Labour” – Jon Cruddas, tribute to George Lansbury, May 2011.

An intriguing part of the Blue Labour project is its wish to make a new interrogation of the party’s history part of the contemporary argument about the party’s mission and identity. But with a twist. For the target often seems to be less New Labour’s conscious choice of modernising amnesia – “forward, not back”, so to speak – but rather an attempt to disrupt and overturn many of the shared narratives and understandings of Labour’s history which much of the party continues to cherish. – Read more.

Bin Laden: the ethics of state assassination – Liberal Conspiracy
By Dave Osler

Both Johann Hari and I were in the United States when the news broke that Osama bin Laden had finally obtained his wish to secure shaheed status. The well-known Independent columnist tells of mingling with jubilant crowds in New York’s Times Square.

This obscure blogger can confirm that the announcement detracted attention from the country and western band I was watching in Nashville for several seconds, with a perceptible murmur of approval after the headline flashed up on the big screen television over the bar.

It is impossible to know which scene most typified the national mood, but few Americans can have been unduly distraught. After all, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke. – 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.