Ed’s inbox – July 22nd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Murdoch could be jailed for “life of the Parliament” if guilty of contempt – Left Foot Forward
By Shamik Das

James Murdoch faces a maximum sentence of being “committed to prison during the life of the Parliament” if he is found to have misled the culture, media and sport select committee. Mudroch has effectively been accused of lying by former News of the World editor Colin Myler and ex-NotW lawyer Tom Crone, who claim he was fully aware of the hush money payout to phone hack victim Gordon Taylor.

In 2008, the Professional Football Association chief executive received a £700,000 out of court settlement to buy his silence in an attempt to bury the extent of the phone hacking scandal. – Read more.

Cameron’s broken promises on policing – Labour Uncut
By Matt Cavanagh

A few days before the general election, David Cameron famously promised that “Any Cabinet minister, if we win the election, who comes to me and says ‘here are my plans and they involve front line reductions’ will be sent back to their department to go away and think again.” As late as last September, home secretary Theresa May was insisting that “lower budgets do not mean lower numbers of police officers”. The breathtaking disingenuousness of these soundbites has been exposed again yesterday, as Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary publish the first authorised estimate of how the government’s 20% cut in police funding, announced in October’s spending review, will affect police numbers – and in particular how it will affect the front line.

The report, based on detailed investigation of individual forces’ plans, estimates that 16,200 police officers will be cut between 2010 and 2015. This entirely undoes Labour’s investment between 2000 and 2010, taking police numbers back to 1997 levels. – Read more.

Will newspaper endorsements matter as much any more? – politicalbetting
By Henry G Manson

On Sunday, Damian Thompson, Editor of the Telegraph Blogs launched a striking attack on David Cameron and the News International phonehacking affair.

He concluded, “It will be difficult to vote Tory at the next election.”

This caught me by surprise and set me thinking if it was at all conceivable that the Telegraph could actually withdraw its support for the Conservatives under David Cameron? What sort of impact could that have on Conservative morale? – Read more.

Boris Johnson equalities deputy filmed using offensive Irish slur – Political Scrapbook
By Political Scrapbook

The deputy mayor of London has been caught on film using an offensive ethnic slur. Speaking during a recent committee meeting, Richard Barnes – a high profile member of the London Assembly and top Boris Johnson appointee – likened concerns around the cost of high speed rail upgrades to work practices of “Irish builders”:

“Does that include the cost of the full rebuild of Euston station that you’re talking about now, or is that going to be in addition as well? Or are they like most Irish builders, saying that it’s going to be ‘roughly that’.” – Read more.

The advocates of Blue Labour should practice what they preach – Liberal Conspiracy
By Don Paskini

It’s been a bit of a tough week for “Blue Labour”, with the discussion having moved on from whether or not its approach should be central to the Labour Party to whether or not there is anything worth salvaging. Although I’m a sceptic of Blue Labour’s approach, I’d like to offer some ideas to help.

My analysis is that the fundamental problem with Blue Labour is not Lord Glasman’s ideas about immigration, nor even Glasman’s “hand grenade” style of debating.

Instead, the problem is that they aren’t behaving in a way which is true to their values. – Read more.