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

IT’S very clear that Anas Sarwar had a decent campaign. There was no internal criticism of the way the campaign was run, and he had his team at the helm throughout.
Like previous leaders, he attempted to get the election onto issues of health, education and jobs — badged up as a “national recovery.”
But the reality is that this was just a repeat of the strategy that has been tried in the past, where the likes of Kezia Dugdale spoke about “kids not cuts” and working together.

From Grangemouth’s closure to Europe’s highest drug deaths, 23 per cent of children in poverty and ferries seven years late, all parties who’ve governed in the last 20 years lack vision or inspiration — we need a new way forward, writes NEIL FINDLAY


