Over the past week, my thoughts about the Epstein–Mandelson scandal have jumped from revulsion about the revelations themselves, to trying to process what they will mean to those who have experienced abuse. Then they have reawakened memories of my own run-ins with Mandelson – and got me thinking again about the culture of self-justified impunity that power brings with it.
The US president’s Board of Peace has less to do with peace, in Gaza or elsewhere, and more to do with enforcing a new, transactional global order. Welcome to the America-First Trumpian world.
Trump says the USA will “run” Venezuela after the his armed attack on the country this weekend. He thinks his power entitles him to take over countries in what he considers to be the US’s backyard. Judging by his actions in Ukraine, Putin thinks the same about what he considers to be Russia’s sphere of influence. As does Xi when it comes to Taiwan. A world to be divided between three superpower …
On Monday of this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-sponsored resolution endorsing President Trump’s plans for the future of Gaza. There were 13 votes in favour, including the UK, and none against. There were two abstentions – Russia and China. Such a decisive result says a lot about the imbalance of power in today’s world – reflected in the reluctance of leaders of European …
Learning lessons from the 1990s genocide could help us to better understand what is going on now – in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the wider world and here in the UK.
I was a Labour MP throughout the Blair and Brown governments. I had my differences with them. Sometimes those differences were so profound that I voted against the government in the House of Commons – for example over the invasion of Iraq and over the extension of detention without trial. My votes on those issues and what I said on a number of others were not popular with the Labour establishment …
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.