Today I am announcing that I will not seek nomination for election again as MP for Birmingham Northfield. As a Labour member living locally, I am also backing Cllr Alex Aitken. My statement is here: I was humbled by the kind words I received from residents when knocking on doors in the recent local elections. Lots of people told me how much they want Northfield to have a Labour MP again, and they...
When collective memories collide, we should search for common ground. By Richard Burden Originally published by HuffPost, August 28, 2018 Is it possible both to respect the shared identity which the vast majority of Jews feel with Israel while also recognising the shared experience of dispossession which Palestinians feel just as deeply? What do you do when the rights and collective memories of...
Sad to hear of the death of my colleague Gerald Kaufman, the longest serving MP in this Parliament. The quantity and breadth of tributes to him have underlined the huge mark he made made in the Labour Party, in the House of Commons and to British politics as a whole. I got to know Gerald through our shared commitment to the cause of justice for the Palestinians. Gerald was a a proud Jew and a...
Let’s get one thing straight at the start. Thursday’s High Court decision did not change or overrule the result of June’s Referendum which voted for Britain to leave the European Union. I know that claiming something else makes for more lurid tabloid headlines but it is a fact. The High Court decision is about who should have a say in how Britain should go about leaving the European Union, not...
Leadership means understanding your part in building a social movement, not believing you are the personification of one. By Richard Burden Originally published by HuffPost, July 24, 2017 Traitors, backstabbers, Red Tories, Blairite plotters … all of us who have called for a change in Labour Leadership have had these kinds of labels thrown at us in recent weeks. Often they come from keyboard...
Three weeks ago it all felt so different. Britain had not yet voted to leave the European Union. The Pound had not plummeted. The Bank of England had not yet had to step in to steady the situation. The Prime Minister had not announced his resignation and the UK’s major political parties had yet not appeared to be in turmoil. None of us have lived through anything quite like this before and nobody...