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

ON Sunday March 3 outside Finsbury Park mosque Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was punched on the head by a man who was apparently also holding an egg. An individual has been charged with assault and the matter will be dealt with by the courts.
However the attack raised wider issues. The attack did not of course receive much media attention and the usual suspects who frequently weigh in about attacks on MPs were silent. That is hardly a surprise to those on the left aware that much of the media is not enthused by Jeremy Corbyn often to the point of lies and distortions.
The initial reports of the event however indicated that Corbyn had in fact not been punched but had an egg thrown at him. Egg throwing is a fairly regular occupational hazard for MPs, particularly those in the public eye. It is harmless (even if an expensive suit may require a trip to the cleaners) and without going into matters of tactics more difficult to do in terms of actually hitting the intended target than might be thought.

In 1981, towering figure for the British left Tony Benn came a whisker away from victory, laying the way for a wave of left-wing Labour Party members, MPs and activism — all traces of which are now almost entirely purged by Starmer, writes KEITH FLETT

Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT

KEITH FLETT revisits debates about the name and structure of proposed working-class parties in the past

The summer saw the co-founders of modern communism travelling from Ramsgate to Neuenahr to Scotland in search of good weather, good health and good newspapers in the reading rooms, writes KEITH FLETT