You always think things cannot get any worse for the Palestinians. But every year they do. (An extract from an article originally published by Labour List.)
On Sunday, as I have done for thirty-two of the past thirty-five years, I attended the Remembrance Day service hosted by the Austin Branch of the Royal British Legion in Northfield, Birmingham. Every year my thoughts turn to visits I have made to Commonwealth war graves both in the UK and in other parts of the world. All those visits have been both poignant and personally moving. None more so …
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I am writing this after news has come through that independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe has heckled King Charles in Parliament House during his tour of Australia. Her protest does not seem to have been motivated by hostility to Charles personally. It was about the British monarchy as a symbol of the brutal impact that colonialism has had on the Indigenous people of Australia …
While the news from the Middle East is understandably now focussing on the horrors unfolding in Lebanon and the real threat of tit for tat strikes between Israel and Iran escalating into a full scale regional war, please do not forget the agony which people in Gaza and the West Bank continue to endure. So if you watch nothing else online today, please look this short video of an American doctor …
A few days ago, on the anniversary of the pogrom that took place on October 7th last year, Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, of which I am an Executive member, published this statement. It reflects my personal thoughts too.
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.