Ed’s inbox – June 28th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Labour’s top brass need to show more ambition – The Staggers
By Will Straw

Yesterday morning’s scoop by Dan Hodges on Chris Lennie becoming the next General Secretary of the Labour party has sent the blogosphere a flutter. Labour List editor, Mark Ferguson, has argued that a more transparent selection process is necessary. Johanna Baxter has called for the National Executive Committee, of which she is an elected member, to make the decision on the basis of merit. And outgoing Fabian General Secretary, Sunder Katwala, has detailed why the decision will be a test case for the more open approach that Ed Miliband called for in Wales on Saturday. But the most depressing part of Dan Hodges piece is the view expressed by one party official that: “Chris [Lennie] is coming in with one brief and one brief only. Cut costs and sort out the finances. That’s it.” – Read more.

For his own good, Ed mustn’t pick a fight with the unions – Labour Uncut
By Dan Hodges

If Ed Miliband picks a fight with the unions, he’ll lose. That’s not a threat or a warning, but a statement of fact.

Just take a look at the trouble he’s managed to get himself into over the past few days. On Friday the Guardian reported that he intended to use the Refounding Labour review to begin the process of “weakening the grip of the unions”. On Sunday the Observer reported he was “on a collision course” over the block vote and Thursday’s strike action. All dramatic, and seemingly unequivocal, stuff. – Read more.

Renting or owning: is that really the choice? – Progress
By Mark Rowney

For many years, the housing market boomed and for those who got in early, they’ve made a killing. In a culture where an Englishman’s home is his castle, what for many years seemed a fool proof way of making money has made home ownership highly desirable. Not only do you have the comfort of owning a roof over your head under which to raise your family so that no landlord can spontaneously evict you (otherwise known as ‘security of tenure’), you’ve lined your pockets too. However, notwithstanding the bubble, housing was by its very nature, always a risky and at first instance, unattractive capital investment. It just so happened that for a period of time, the market kept going up and didn’t go down. So apart from the poor state of the current housing market, what is wrong with housing? – Read more.

Where next for Ed’s speeches? – Left Foot Forward
By Asher Dresner

Ed Miliband’s speech on Saturday was designed to secure his control over the party and widen Labour’s appeal. Here is how the speech used good framing to do that, and how subsequent speeches could build on it. Labour politics are normally framed in terms of right versus left, ‘Blairites versus Brownites’, ‘David supporters versus Ed supporters’, and so on…

If you think about Labour like that, then you are likely to listen to any leader’s speech and judge its suggestions on whether they move the party left or right – Read more.

Commons watchdog launches inquiry into David Laws suspension leak – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

On the evening of 10 May, Political Scrapbook revealed the length of David Laws’ suspension from the Commons some twelve hours before the mainstream media.

This evening, two weeks after Laws completed his 7-day enforced holiday, we received a letter from the Committee on Standards and Privileges asking for details of “the background to the reporting of this story”, including information related to the identity of our source(s). – Read more.