Ed’s inbox – May 24th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Tories unlikely to discipline Helmer for sickening rape comments – Left Foot Forward
By Shamik Das

The Conservative party have said there are “no plans” to take action against right-wing MEP Roger Helmer for shocking remarks made on his blog about rape. Helmer said some rape victims were to blame for their assault.

Helmer had written:

“Consider two rape scenarios. The first is the classic “stranger-rape”… The second is “date rape”…

“While in the first case, the blame is squarely on the perpetrator and does not attach to the victim, in the second case the victim surely shares a part of the responsibility.” – Read more.

Cameron and Osborne should support Gordon Brown to lead the IMF – THE HONEYBALL BUZZ
By Mary Honeyball MEP

I find David Cameron’s rejection of Gordon Brown’s bid to lead the IMF quite appalling. I always thought the Conservatives claimed to be patriotic, until recently singing “Land of Hope and Glory” at their annual conference. We now know they do not put Britain first, living up to Winston Churchill’s damning condemnation of a former Tory Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, whom he accused of putting party before country.

Since many believe Gordon Brown has excellent credentials for the IMF post, Cameron and Osborne’s attitude comes not from a desire to support the best candidate, but rather from narrow party advantage. – Read more.

Lessons from Ken week: the fake allure of “false choice” – Labour Uncut
By Dan Hodges

“It’s a false choice”, we were told. Labour could let the liberals have their cake, and allow the squeezed middle to gorge on it as well.

Those warning that their party must decide between appealing to the “progressive majority”, and our lost small “c” conservative base, were trouble makers. Jaded soldiers, trying to fight the last war. Blairite “ultras”, unwilling or unable to come to terms with the brave world of the new politics.

There was no need to choose. To do so would be painful and divisive. Premature. We have had our fill of pain and division. Surely we’ve earned the right to rest awhile?

So rest we did. – Read more.

Judge: behaviour of John Hemming “not only unacceptable but shocking” – Political Scrapbook
By Matt Zarb-Cousin

Naming super-injunctee Ryan Giggs in parliament has the press queuing up to pat Birmingham MP John Hemming on the back: “Agent Hemming, good man, did his deed during a Commons Statement about the injunctions farce.”, cries Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail. But yesterday wasn’t the first time the Liberal Democrat took the law into his own hands. – Read more.

Vince drops the bomb: ‘Greece should default’ – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

Wow. I’ve been calling for Greece (and Ireland) to default for quite a while, but I didn’t expect Vince Cable to agree with me.

He tells the Guardian:

“What [the Greeks] are going to have to do is to have a rescheduling of their debt and it can be done in a soft way or a hard way, and that’s what the current debate is about. You can’t just deal with this by cutting, cutting, cutting – it’s wrong, and it does not work. Attacking the debt, and dealing with it in a more pragmatic way, is the way out of this.” – 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.