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

SOME might argue that among a number of things Keir Starmer and Liz Truss may have in common is a youthful public disdain for the monarchy, now replaced by a forelock-tugging approach to it.
The comparison doesn’t quite work because Starmer has tugged his forelock harder.
He tweeted nothing but royal inanities on his Twitter account from the day of the Queen’s death until her funeral, while millions continued to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.

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