Pick of the week: Corbyn, coups and coalitions
Our top stories for you this week – including vaping, banned substances and Jeremy Corbyn.
Five: Anti-vaping campaigners are a threat to public health
This week's fifth spot goes to our piece on the report by Public Health England which said e-cigarettes are far safer than traditional cigarettes. With so much misinformation surrounding this issue, many people actually believe the opposite is true. New technology means alternatives to smoking such as vaping are as enjoyable as cigarettes and appear to have the potential to save thousands of lives. We argue it is those who oppose this who are a threat to public health.
Four: The Greens would welcome a coalition with Jeremy Corbyn
This was our piece by Green MEP Molly Scott Cato who suggests the only way for Labour to return to power is by embracing a coalition. She says Corbyn will not provide the party with a magical route to victory but his leadership could lead to opportunities for political alignment. She looks to the Red-Green alliance in Germany between 1998 to 2005 as an example of what could happen here if the Labour party recognised the need for a coalition with the Greens.
Three: Home Office drug advisers try to clear up Theresa May's mess
This is our story about the advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on the scope and definitions of the psychoactive substances bill. As we have covered before on Politics.co.uk, the purpose of this bill is to ban just about everything. The government's drug advisers have tried their best to get into a position where the the proposals are plausible but ultimately they will struggle to fix a bill that was never supposed to make sense.
Two: Critical blogger banned from voting in Labour leadership election
In second place is the news that a Labour supporting blogger who had been critical of his local council has been banned from voting in the leadership race. Lambeth councillor Alex Bingham sent a dossier to his party recommending Jason Cobb be prevented from voting because of a number of tweets he had sent accusing some Labour councils of 'social cleansing'. Cobb, who intended to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, has received the backing of his local Labour MP Kate Hoey who claims her local councillors have a "vendetta" against him.
One: Ken Livingstone: It's the Labour right, not Jeremy Corbyn, who are out of touch
In the top spot this week is a piece written for Politics.co.uk by Ken Livingstone on the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. As the attacks from Labour party grandees on the leadership frontrunner continue to grow, so too does his support base. Livingstone points to the recent packed out rallies and positive polling as evidence that it is the right of the party who are out of touch, not Corbyn.
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