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

GUARDIAN editorials are often ponderous affairs bordering on the pious but a commentary on the ending of lockdown at the beginning of July suddenly opined that “Revolutions are not inevitable” and went on to note that sharp jolts to the system often saw “normality” return later.
It sounded rather like the Guardian urging its readers to keep calm in the face of possible social upheaval, which they might applaud around the world but be more doubtful about closer to home.
There certainly is a link between epidemics of disease, their impact and social unrest.

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