As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM

BOTH the Tories and Labour are promising “digital” will save the NHS — but in the real world, this technophile talk sounds empty, because the government’s “big contracts” watchdog warns the NHS’s main IT programmes are in real danger of failure.
This year, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said that “supporting innovation and the adoption of the right digital health technologies” is key to NHS recovery after the pandemic.
Barclay thinks digital is the answer to doing more with less, arguing “we know” that “digitally mature NHS trusts operate with approximately 10 per cent improved efficiency.”

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests