Responding to reports in the media about Bournville College in Longbridge, Richard Burden MP said: “I am very concerned about the news of the cuts being faced by Bournville College. Bournville is not only hugely important to expanding apprenticeships and providing young people with the skills and opportunities they deserve. It is also a cornerstone of the regeneration of the Longbridge area …
I know a lot of local people have experienced problems with London Midland Trains “Leaf Fall” service. I have written to London Midland to raise local people’s concerns about the amended timetable. You can find a copy of their reply to my letter here. As you will see, London Midland have reinstated stops on the 7.52 Longbridge to Four Oaks Service and the 8.10 Lichfield to Longbridge. I …
I know how much local people value our NHS. Sixty six years after the then Labour government created it, the principle that everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – can use any part of our health service is more important than ever. But during this parliament it has undergone huge and damaging changes. £3 billion has been wasted on a top-down reorganisation that the Conservatives …
I am very pleased to send you my report of some of the things I have been doing over the last year as your Member of Parliament. Times have been tough here in the past few years. Month by month local people have been seeing the prices of food, heating and travel rise faster than their wages. The number of residents – especially those under 24 – out of a job for over a year is …
This year’s Remembrance events have been special in so many ways. Most obviously, of course, it is 100 years since the outbreak of World War One. In June it was also the 70th anniversary of D-Day in World War Two. This is also the year in which British combat troops leave Afghanistan; a conflict that has claimed the lives of 453 UK service personnel in the past thirteen years. In amongst the …
After Parliament’s historic recognition of Palestine in October, I wrote the following article for the Chartist on the implications of the vote. The UK Parliament’s vote on October 13 to recognise the state of Palestine was, by any standards, historic. Some close to the Israel government have since sought to rubbish it, claiming that somehow Labour MPs were forced by Ed Miliband to vote for …
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.