Ed’s inbox – May 25th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

That special relationship in full – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

While Cameron savours every poll-boosting moment with Barack Obama, let’s remember who his first choice really was:

“David Cameron last night risked political isolation in Washington as he broke diplomatic convention by backing a candidate in the US presidential race.”

Nice one, Dave. – Read more.

Ten Top Tips for great phone canvassers – Scarlet Standard
By Emma Burnell

Most of this blog is about analysis. About policy and campaigns on a national level. Today, I thought I’d try something a bit different. (not only because everyone else is writing about how much they love Obama and I do too, but don’t think I have anything unique to add to that love!).

I’ve asked before that Labour focus on a qualitative relationship with voters. That while volume is important, making 10,000 poor phone calls is less useful than making 5,000 useful ones. – Read more.

The Guardian excels itself in idiocy – Harry’s Place
By Michael Ezra

The Guardian has published an article on its website by Richard Hillgrove. He argues that “Facebook and Twitter must be reeled in” and that “they are going to have to introduce a delay mechanism so that content can be checked before it goes up.” He goes on to say that there needs to be “some sort of international arbitration set up, which the Americans would need to be involved in, and quickly.”

What he is effectively arguing for is that every Tweet, every Facebook status update, or comment below someone else’s status update, a wall post comment, or a comment on a picture, is checked by a suitably qualified person at Facebook and Twitter to ensure that it is in compliance with the law. – Read more.

Building the progressive majority – Progress
By Caroline Flint MP

Two weeks on from the Tories’ and Liberal Democrats’ first major electoral test since they went into coalition, and the UK’s second ever referendum, there is no shortage of punditry or commentary on the outcome of the elections and what they mean for Labour.

In the local elections, Labour won over 800 seats and gained 25 councils. Over 400 of those gains came from the Tories, and Labour’s vote was up eight per cent on 2010. The Labour family campaigned with good heart and energy. Quite a feat for a party defeated 12 months ago. – Read more.

King Obama? – New Statesman
By Mehdi Hasan

The press coverage of the US president’s state visit to Britain is bordering on the ridiculous.

I blogged in the weekend about Andrew Marr’s soft interview with Barack Obama in the White House ahead of his state visit to the UK. There were plenty of journalists willing to take potshots at Marr’s giddiness and obvious excitement at being in the presence of “The One”.

But newspaper journalists, commentators, pundits, broadcasters and bloggers alike have been fawning in their coverage of the US president since his arrival on our shores on Monday night. – 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.