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June 4th, 2011

‘Shameful’ anti-reform Lib Dem peers, the slowest recovery for 180 years, and is the Labour shadow cabinet half asleep? Round up of political blogs for 28 May – 3 June

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Blog Admin

June 4th, 2011

‘Shameful’ anti-reform Lib Dem peers, the slowest recovery for 180 years, and is the Labour shadow cabinet half asleep? Round up of political blogs for 28 May – 3 June

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Chris Gilson, Paul Rainford and Amy Mollett take a look at the week in political blogging

The coalition

Sunder Katwala at Next Left has some reasons why the coalition might not go the distance to 2015, while Tim Montgomerie at thetorydiary says that Cameron’s aides want the Coalition to continue even in the event of a Tory majority at the next election.

Labour

Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy wonders if the Labour shadow cabinet is half asleep, and argues that they are missing many an opportunity to take the fight to the coalition. This is reflected in polling figures from Political Betting that show Labour to have lost its lead over the Conservatives for the first time in seven months, according to the latest ComRes phone poll.

Political Betting considers Labour’s chances of winning the next election with Ed Miliband at the helm, giving three reasons why the leader needs his brother David back. Labour List again reports a slump in Ed Miliband’s popularity amongst its readers.

House of Lords reform

Patrick McGlinchey at Left Foot Forward talks diversity and democracy in the House of Lords. Mark Pack laments the sizable minority of Liberal Democrat peers who are opposed to reform in upper House and Stuart Bonar at Liberal Democrat Voice believes that such figures shame the party.

The NHS and health reform

Paul Linford wonders if Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms are now ‘dead in the water’ given the recent backlash against the reforms. According to George Eaton at The Staggers, Lansley would rather quit than go back on the reforms. Liberal Conspiracy’s Sunny Hundal doubts that Cameron will cut Lansley loose over the NHS; Samira Shackle at The Staggers agrees, quoting Cameron who has said that Lansley is doing an “excellent job”.

Liberal Conspiracy reveals that the NHS has already spent £1billion preparing for Lansley’s reforms, and Left Foot Forward documents disgruntlement at the half-hearted nature of the coalition’s ‘listening exercise’.

Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy reveals the pamphlet underpinning Conservative plans to privatise the NHSPolitical Scrapbook point out the tens of thousands of pounds being paid by private healthcare providers for access to government ministers.

A guest blog at Left Foot Forward by GP and NHS manager Dr Charles West discusses why the Quality Premium should be removed from the Health Bill.

Thetorydiary argues that long-term care problems could be ameliorated by some short-term solutions, and the Westminster Blog provides a guide to the Southern Cross care homes crisis.

Education

With a no-confidence motion on David Willetts set to be debated in Oxford, Left Foot Forward explores whether the learned dons of the dreaming spires can turn the tide in the education debate, and The Staggers urges ministers to consider the opportunity costs of student debt.

Owen Jones at Labour List provides an argument for abolishing Oxbridge, but Alex Canfor-Dumas provides a spirited defence of the venerable old institution.

The economy

John Redwood says that we need a new growth strategy, but Richard Murphy at the TUC’s Touchstone Blog says that there is no evidence that lowering corporation tax will lead to higher growth. Tim Montgomerie at thetorydiary says that George Osborne’s deficit reduction strategy is ‘very average’, despite some claims that it is unusual compared to strategies in other countries.

Liberal Conspiracy covers news from the FT that the UK’s recovery is set to be the slowest for 180 years, and The Coffee House believes that the fires are being stoked in the inflation battle. The Staggers shows that slow manufacturing growth, a confidence slump and low rates of mortgage approvals all spell bad news for George Osborne.

Don Paskini at Liberal Conspiracy lays out the case for raising taxes and Richard Murphy says we should celebrate and nourish the state (and indeed ‘red tape’ regulation), not make it a scapegoat for our economic woes.

Labour List questions the Tax Payers’ Alliance’s reluctance to take Cameron to task over his £700k No. 10 refurbishment at public expense.

Andy Hull at The Staggers argues that we need to urgently address the UK’s addiction to property.

London

Guido Fawkes comments on Lembit Opik’s campaign to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor, believing that most Lib Dems are desperate for the ground to swallow him up.

Meanwhile, current London Major Boris Johnson is taking backwards steps when it comes to easing the capital’s pollution, according to Left Foot Forward.

And finally…

Twitter’s ‘age of innocence’ is now over with a successful attempt by an English council to subpoena a user’s information, according to Duncan Robinson at The Staggers.

Left Foot Forward consider Francis Maude’s Fabian credentials.

As carbon emissions hit an all-time high, Left Foot Forward ponders how the self proclaimed ‘greenest government ever’ will respond.

Anthony Painter at Labour List argues that a debate on independence for England is long overdue.

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This work by British Politics and Policy at LSE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.