By Krupesh Hirani

The scrapping of the revolutionary Building Schools for the Future programme serves as a triple whammy to families around the country and represents a false economy from the education department.

First and foremost, it is a cut aimed at the group in society who had no say in the election: children. Instead, the coalition government has rushed through the Academies Bill, advocating a ‘Free Schools’ policy aimed at schools already doing well and ignoring the issue of there being a too few school places to meet demand and the need to improve our failing schools. Every child should have the right to a decent standard of education in a respectable environment, and these cuts will mean that children will continue to be educated in dilapidated buildings, unfit for the twenty-first century, without enough school places to meet the shortages.

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today lacked yesterday's fizz and crackle, without a live hustings in front of a studio audience, but as the candidates head towards their summer holidays (which they will surely be glad of), there were a few final punches to be thrown.

ED BALLS responded to the news that Michael Gove's colleague Theresa Villiers has written a letter of protest to Gove after a school was rejected for academy status in her area. Ed said:

"Michael Gove's ministerial colleague is right to share our fears that the Tory academies programme will simply be about rewarding schools that are already doing well."

By Wayne David MP

As we move beyond the first phase of the Labour leadership contest, it is clear that the eventual victor will be either David or Ed Miliband.

At the start of the contest I thought carefully about who to support; I was torn between the two brothers. But what made me sway in the direction of Ed was two factors. Firstly, the warmth of his personality, combined with his lucidity and ability to genuinely listen. Secondly, his belief, borne out of our collective experience, about what needs to change in our party for us to win power as soon as possible.

By Rob Macpherson

It's been a week since Yoosk launched their Labour leadership hustings asking people to put their questions to the five hopefuls before we put them in front of a camera and get the most popular ones answered.

The response has been very heartening as Labour members, trade union members and the public have already combined to ask over 100 questions to either the whole panel or individual candidates. Such an impressive level of engagement bodes well not just for our hustings but also for all five campaign teams who have a vital opportunity to let their candidate address questions that could otherwise go unanswered.

By Lisa Nandy MP

The last week in parliament before the summer recess brought mixed feelings. The rush to push the academies bill through the commons continued to cause a storm, though many MPs were demob happy at the prospect of having a bit of time off. It’s been quite a long slog, especially for new MPs, who have had to find the stamina for the selection process, the election campaign, and then a bewildering and busy first term.

The confusion over "Building Schools for the Future" continues. In Wigan we are still waiting to hear why our projects, which had reached financial close, have been cancelled. On Wednesday an unrepentant Michael Gove told the Education Select Committee (of which I am a member) that he thought the decision to cancel projects on a purely financial basis was fair and seemed not to accept that the individual decisions, from the outside at least, still seem arbitrary and potentially discriminatory. The only slightly cheering thing was the sight of Mr Gove being pursued around London by the Daily Mirror chicken, who is challenging him to fulfill his promise to go to Sandwell and apologise to the children who will not now have the new school they were promised. I hope the chicken will have more success than we have in the house.

By Tom Callow

In his fortnightly PR Week column back in June, Alex Hilton argued that Labour’s communications strategy was failing in getting across its messages about the danger of cutting too much too soon. Whilst a fragmented communications strategy may not have been the ultimate factor in our defeat, I do not think we are being anywhere near as effective as we need to be in communicating both ideology and policy.

Alex Hilton’s central example was that Labour "allowed its reputation for economic competence to be stripped". Rather than a factually accurate common public opinion that the Labour government oversaw the country's longest period of sustained economic growth, public perception shifted to a warped view of reality in which Labour – and specifically Gordon Brown – had been the trigger for the entirety of the global economic downturn.

The "Countering the coalition" column

By Hadleigh Roberts

In the days following the general election, the Liberal Democrat Party changed drastically. In part four, I looked at how Labour should treat the Lib Dems in a temporary coalition, now in part five I intend to look at the party in the longer term.

In a Politics Show debate between the three prospective chancellors, Andrew Neil asked a flailing Vince Cable "Isn’t the greatest myth of this election your reputation?" In some respects, he was right, because when the Liberal Democrats joined the Tories in government several myths surrounding the party were proven and others were dispelled.

By Mike Katz / @mikekatz

Eric Pickles, self-styled champion of localism (the Tories’ word of the month) has come up with a bizarre proposal for devolving power downwards in his new consultation on council tax, published today.

Under the plans if councils want to increase the tax above a set ceiling – which could be the rate of inflation, according to the Daily Telegraph - they would have to submit the plans to local referenda, costing tens of thousands of pounds. However, as the referendum would be held after the increase came into effect, the council would have to refund residents if the difference if they voted for the smaller increase.

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Nick Clegg revealed yesterday that he had changed his mind about Tory cuts before the election, rather than after he was given a ministerial car and a comfy chair in Downing Street as he had previously led us to believe.

There has already been a great deal of discussion about how important this is. For me, it is further re-inforcement of the line that Labour have been using since the formation of the coalition - that Clegg has let down those that elected him and his party. If anything these revelations add something new into that mix - deception.

By Hopi Sen / @hopisen

A brief series where, for my own amusement (and possibly ensuring I never work for the Labour Party again), I set out the case against each of the Leadership candidates. The eleventh commandment of internal elections is “Never speak ill of a fellow party member”. It gets broken just as regularly as the other ten, but I shall try to be constructive, not merely critical.

I planned to make the entirety of this post a link to the result of the 1983 General Election.

Thinking about this, I realised I’d be letting my own rejection of Diane Abbott’s agenda stop me from saying anything interesting.

The truth is, Diane Abbott is not running to be leader of the Labour Party.

By Sunder Katwala / @nextleft

The first piece of decent information about the views of those who will vote in the Labour leadership contest comes in a YouGov poll of party members and trade unionists for The Sun.

David Miliband is confirmed as the frontrunner - the poll suggests he would win the election if it was held tomorrow - but the details of the poll also suggest that the race is likely to go to the wire, with the Miliband brothers some distance ahead of their rivals.

YouGov has David Miliband leading on the first round of the electoral college, projecting the following totals.

David Miliband - 37%
Ed Miliband - 32%
Diane Abbott - 12%
Andy Burnham - 11%
Ed Balls 11%

That is based on a 38-32 lead among party members on first preferences, and a 34-26 lead among trade unionists.

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

* The first opinion poll of the leadership race has been released by YouGov - and David Miliband is in the lead.

* Jon Cruddas has called for an English Labour party.

* Did Nick Clegg dupe David Cameron over AV?

* Ed Miliband feels sorry for the Lib Dems.

* Ken Livingstone defends the Freedom Pass in the New Statesman.

* The IDS reforms to the welfare system have been revealed - including the consolodation of all benefits into one payment...

* Lib Dems have begun to voice fears of guilt by association with the Tories.

* And read SUnder Katwala and Will Straw's letter to the Guardian on the AV elephant trap...

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today was the day of the 5 Live leadership hustings, the first leadership event to be held infront of "ordinary voters". It was equal parts enthralling and unedifying, but it was certainly a change in both pace and style from the increasingly repetitive conventional hustings events.

ED BALLS appeared to have got the best of the hustings today. Then again, the reactions he elicited from the crowds were pretty broad (a combination of applause, laughter, and even some booing). He was tenacious, though, which is what we've come to expect in this leadership contest from Ed.

He was similarly tenacious today while challenging Michael Gove over the academies bill - with particular regard to the number of schools trying to be academies. Ed said:

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

The deadline for voting in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll is now just a couple of days away.

As last year, when LabourList finished 15th, we're again co-hosting the poll, alongside Lib Dem Voice and Iain Dale. The results will be included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11.

As Total Politics says: