Ed’s inbox – July 13th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

Lord Ashcroft shifts ground over Tom Baldwin affair – News Statesman
By Dan Hodges

As the phone-hacking scandal continues to steamroller all before it there is a new and interesting intervention today from Lord Ashcroft on his own Conservative Home website.

Last week Ashcroft made a series of allegations on Conservative Home against Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband’s strategy director, dating back to Baldwin’s time as a journalist for the Times.

In his initial post Ashcroft claimed that Baldwin had “commissioned” a private investigator named Gavin Sangfield to gain access to his (Ashcroft’s) private financial details, including his bank account, through a practice known as “blagging”. – Read more.

BSkyB bid dropped – now we must push for media ownership reform – Labour Uncut
By Anthony Painter

It would be lovely to think that the BSkyB bid has been dropped because of Parliamentary unity and clarity of voice. Unfortunately, this is not really the case. The reality is that two other factors are likely to have led to this decision.

The increasing political and media attention on the scandal in the US and the impact of this focus on News Corporation’s financial standing is undoubtedly a major factor. Questions posed yesterday by Senator Jay Rockefeller who has insisted that allegations that victims of 9/11 had their phones hacked should be investigated have forced the Murdochs into a rear-guard action. BSkyB is no longer the focus- News Corporation itself is the concern and the corporate share buy-back yesterday indicates the emerging crisis for the company. – Read more.

Rusbridger: NotW more thorough than Stasi – Liberal Conspiracy
By Sunny Hundal

In an interview with the New Statesman published tomorrow (not online yet), the Guardian’s editor in chief says:

“The [New York Times] established that the NoW was tracking, as well as hacking, phones, using specialist police technology at £300 a pop. Think about it – the paper was able to locate any politician, footballer, celebrity or grieving relative at any time of day or night to within yards. It’s called total surveillance. Not even the Stasi could do that.” – Read more.

Has Kay Burley been spinning for Murdoch lieutenant Les Hinton? – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

News addicts may recall Kay Burley’s hectoring questioning of Chris Bryant over phone hacking, culminating in the Rhondda MP describing the Sky News presenter as “a bit dim”.

“Do you have evidence that [phone hacking is] endemic … pretty strong claim if you don’t”

And while Burley’s detractors may delight in Bryant’s demands for an apology during an interview yesterday, it remains possible these exchanges could have significance beyond the mere amusement of the Westminster village. – Read more.

Are the employment figures about to get worse? – Left Foot Forward
By Richard Exell

The headlines in today’s labour market statistics (pdf) will satisfy the government. Employment in the three months March to May reached 29,279,000, an increase of 50,000 from December to February. The number unemployed (using the ILO definition) fell 26,000 to 2,452,000 between the same dates.

There was also a 53,000 fall in the number of economically inactive people who say they want a job, to 2,301,000. The number of unemployed people under 25 was down by 42,000 and the number of all ages unemployed for more than a year fell 37,000. To put a bit more perspective on these figures, compared with a year ago, employment is up 309,000 and unemployment is down 23,000. – Read more.