Ed’s inbox – March 28th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

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

The rise and fall of a Lib Dem candidate for Mayor – Tory Troll
By Adam Bienkov

Dominic Carman: Why I want to be Mayor of London (23/03/11)

“London needs someone with muscular liberalism. I believe I have the right combination of political commitment… This makes me determined to fight to win the Lib Dem nomination…

“In May 1982, a Labour candidate stood in a by-election. The Labour Party was then in opposition, not in government. The candidate saw his vote collapse and he lost his deposit. But the party believed in him and his abilities. A year later, he was given a safe Labour seat, which he won comfortably at the 1983 general election. I knew the candidate, and talked with him about the campaign, before and after his by-election defeat. It taught me never to be deterred by defeat, but to use the experience to advantage – to fight on and win. The candidate’s name? Tony Blair.”

Dominic Carman: Why I don’t want to be Mayor of London (28/03/11) – Read more.

Flowerpot Boris was for student violence before he was against it – Next Left
By Sunder Katwala

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has badly overstepped the mark today, ludicrously claiming that Labour leader Ed Miliband will have been “quietly satisfied” by the violence in the capital which risked overshadowing the TUC’s March for the Alternative on Saturday. (Labour is reasonably asking Johnson to withdraw the slur; while Boris will be jolly pleased to pocketed another £5k in chicken feed for dashing off the column, perhaps he ought to offer to pay this week’s fee to charity as a penance too). – Read more.

Is there REALLY a consensus on Austerity? – Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
By Sue Marsh

With a news schedule this busy, it’s easy to miss the wider picture. With our screens full of conflict in the Middle East, disaster in Japan, marches in London and cuts that need to be opposed, it’s easy to forget that the world must still turn and that we need a coherent strategy to ensure that it does.

During the credit crunch there was a broad consensus. The only way out of the financial meltdown, the only way to avoid a worldwide depression was through stimulus. Across Europe and America, governments stepped in to support ailing industries, protect home owners from repossession, bail out the banks and keep interest rates low. – Read more.

Views from the march for the alternative – Left Foot Forward
By Dominic Browne

Left Foot Forward followed the march on Saturday, listened to the speeches and spoke to… whoever would speak to us – about why they were marching, what they thought of the opposition to the government and how the cuts affected them.

Chris Morris:

Told Left Foot Forward that one of the reasons he came out for the march was hearing Mervyn King talk about how he sympathised with public anger at the bankers over the economic situation. – Read more.

Last week saw the beginning of a journey: from Red Ed to one nation prime minister – Labour Uncut
By Michael Dugher

Political strategy, like Robert Burns’ best laid schemes of mice and men, can “oft go awry”. The thing that really tests prime ministers, governments and oppositions too is what Harold Macmillan once famously called “events”. A week ago, Ed Miliband convened a special meeting of the Parliamentary Labour party (PLP) to discuss that day’s vote on support for military action in Libya. Despite the Conservative and right-wing media’s ongoing efforts to caricature him as “Red Ed”, a prisoner of the left-wing trade unions, he spoke very firmly in favour of military action arguing that, despite the huge reservations and concerns that many in the PLP held, Labour and Britain must support the will of the international community as spelled out in the UN security council resolution. What is more, he carried the meeting. And he managed to unite MPs as diverse in their ideological perspective as Michael Meacher and John Spellar – a remarkable (if not unprecedented) achievement. – 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.