Former
Welcome to my website and blog.
I created it when I was Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019, and most of the posts on here date from that period. A summary of my Parliamentary career can be found here. You can also read a bit more about who I am and what makes me tick here.
I have continued to blog from time to time since leaving Parliament. My posts below also contain links to articles I have written and which have been published elsewhere, together with posts imported from my own Facebook page.
This front page of my website contains the text (only) of my recent tweets and retweets on X and introductory extracts from my blog posts in date order. To view posts on a specific subject, from both during and after my time in Parliament, please click one of the buttons below.
These are the main subjects on which I’ve written. Click here to view the full list of categories.
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If this is true, it would be the most disgraceful example yet of world leaders apparently believing that Palestinian lives don’t count as much as those of other humans..
Israeli military and settler violence is soaring in the West Bank.
This weekend, two Palestinians were killed and 45+ injured.
Settlers set fire to homes and vehicles, and attacked ambulances.
We’ve released pre-positioned emergency supplies to help treat the injured. (1/4)
The Emergency Department at Shifa Hospital had recently been refurbished when I visited last summer – although Israel’s blockade was still depriving it of essential equipment. Now look at it. Utter devastation and a war crime. #CeasefireNOW
More healthcare workers have been killed during Israel’s military bombardment in #Gaza over the last six months, than were killed in all conflicts globally in 2021 and 2022 combined.
Healthcare workers are #NotATarget
🔴 Share to show your support for Gaza’s healthcare workers.
It is 21 years since British photojournalist Tom Hurndall was shot by an Israeli sniper while trying to save children from the line of fire in Rafah. His memory calls us all to redouble our efforts to demand an end to Gaza’s agony today.
Refugees from Gaza with family in the UK face both Kafkaesque barriers from the UK government and extortion at the border between Rafah and Egypt. A family I know is experiencing both. Before going into that, though, let’s get one thing clear. The way to end the suffering in Gaza is an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access into the Strip, it is one hundred per cent unacceptable to...
This is a statement I made in my capacity as Healthwatch Birmingham & Healthwatch Solihull Chair, which was published on the Healthwatch Birmingham website: The latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) shows just how far the new leadership team has to go in earning the trust and confidence of staff who have suffered under the...
The boundaries between legitimate protest, abuse and intimidation are again in the spotlight. It is not the first time this has been an issue. I wrote about this subject in 2016 when I was an MP. Those of us who rightly call for the carnage in Gaza to stop – and stop now – must certainly reject intimidatory abuse in support of that cause. But nobody should pretend such abuse has ever only come...
The International Court of Justice has reminded Israel that it has already ordered it to “ensure the safety and security of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip” – including in Rafah. The onslaught on Rafah that Netanyahu is threatening would be a clear breach of that order and illegal. How will history judge the international community if we just carry on making polite requests to Israel...
“The most worrying finding is that patients are not always protected from harm.” I am chair of Healthwatch Birmingham and Healthwatch Solihull. This was my first statement on the new CQC report into University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust: In some respects, the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is a picture of...
With more than 68 ships per day passing through the Suez Canal, carrying 12 percent of all goods traded in the world, it has been impossible for the international community to ignore the escalating attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea that Yemen's Houthis have launched over the past two months. In that context, the decision of the US and the UK to take military action against Houthi bases...
A friend in Gaza has just sent me this photo of people trying to get to the south on foot, having lost their homes in and around Gaza City. Whole lives consigned to a carrier bag or backpack. It will always shame the world that we let these war crimes carry on.
On Remembrance Sunday, a video of my visit to the Commonwealth War Graves in Gaza Cemetery in 2012. I met Ibrahim Jaradah MBE who had lovingly kept the cemetery immaculate for decades. Ibrahim’s family have continued his work ever since but they are amongst the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have now been forced to flee the north of Gaza. I don’t know how far the cemetery has survived...
By Katie Neame Originally published by Labour List, November 9, 2023 A former Labour shadow minister has urged the party not to further row back on past commitments on recognising Palestine when in government, criticising its decision not to promise immediate recognition of statehood. Speaking exclusively to LabourList, Richard Burden, the former Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield, called on...
This week, the UK Government has published a Bill that will both jettison Britain’s respect for international laws that ban the acquisition of territory by conquest and ignore UN rules signed by the UK over a decade ago calling on businesses to ensure their commercial dealings abroad uphold human rights. The Bill will also uniquely shield human rights abuses by Israel from scrutiny by UK public...
To all my friends living in my home town: Please consider this. There are around 1.1 million Palestinians living in the north of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military order that they should leave within 24 hours is like telling the population of Birmingham to leave within 24 hours – including evacuating the Queen Elizabeth, other hospitals and care homes in the city, as well as people’s houses...
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.
