Pick of the week: Ban this sick filth
The top five most read articles on Politics.co.uk this week.
5. May goes to war with the police
Theresa May continued her war against the boys in blue this week, as she announced wide-ranging legislation designed to crack down on corruption and open up the Police Federation to scrutiny. The measures are likely to infuriate officers and please campaigners for police reform in equal measure.
4. Sex workers' rights are not up for debate
Last week the New Statesman organised a debate on "buying and selling sex" at Conway Hall, in collaboration with London Thinks. In this piece, Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes and Pandora Blake of the Sex Worker's Open University, who were both on the panel, address some of the accusations which emerged during the discussion.
3. Everything you need to know about the Tories' Human Rights Act attack
Legislation to scrap the Human Right's Act was conspicuous by its absence in the Queen's speech this week. The threat of a major backbench rebellion and defeat in the Lords was enough for David Cameron to kick this well into the long grass. However, the proposals haven't gone away. In this piece we explain exactly what they are and the huge hurdles that still stand in their way.
2. The left needs to address the rise of identity politics
University diversity officer Bahar Mustufa rose to fame for asking white men not to attend an event organised for ethnic minority women, as well as her decision to tweet the hashtag #killallwhitemen. The debate over Bahar's future has raised hugely controversial questions about the nature of race and the future of the left and caused outrage both on and offline. This piece by our editor Ian Dunt added to that controversy this week.
1. The government just banned everything
The government's new Psychoactive Substances Act starts from the absurd premise that anything which "is capable of producing a psychoactive effect" will henceforth be banned. Obviously there will have to be exemptions. Nobody wants to send parents to jail for supplying sugary drinks to children. However, the blanket nature of the bill goes against the very foundation of our unwritten constitution. In a free society, everything should be considered legal until stated otherwise. This bill turns that fundamental premise on its head.
