Former
Welcome to my website and blog.
You can read a bit more about who I am and what makes me tick here. A summary of the work I did when I was Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 can also be found here.
The older posts on here date from my time as an MP but I have continued to blog since leaving Parliament.
The opening paragraphs of my blog posts appear at the bottom of this page in reverse date order. The “Read on” buttons take you to what I have written in full. My posts below also contain links to articles I have written and which have been published elsewhere, together with posts imported from my former Facebook page. My current Facebook account is here.
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.
Here is the link to my Bluesky account, and here is the link to my Twitter/X account. You can view my latest Facebook posts here. I also have a LinkedIn profile.
Click on ‘Contact’ below to get in touch with me.
This feed refreshes intermittently. Please log in to X (Twitter) to view my newest tweets in full.
More than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world’s eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state.
This is pitch-perfect.
Skepticism over statements on these matters is appropriate, but this appears to be different. We cynics on Jerusalem matters are always right – until we aren't.
The real test comes when the actual measures are announced and put in place. Let's hope.
E-1
The Israeli Government’s launch of tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable and destructive. Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two state solution. My statement:
Protecting the independent voice of patients and the public: How Yvette Cooper can demonstrate Andy Burnham’s new approach to government in practice:
I was proud to speak last week at the launch of’s theme to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. The theme, “Acts of Courage” pays tribute to the ordinary Bosnians who took great risks to protect others during the conflict in the 1990s, as well as those who have the courage today to speak out about what happened. These acts of bravery, heroism and determination to resist …
Residents living close to North Worcestershire Golf Course will know that in August 2017 a renewed application by Bloor Homes to build 950 homes on the site of the old golf course was rejected by Birmingham City Council. Bloor Homes have now lodged an appeal with the government, in an attempt to overturn this decision If you submitted comments to Birmingham City Council when the planning …
Government funding to Birmingham City Council has been cut by almost £650 million since 2010. This is the biggest cut in local government history and is more than 75 per cent of the City Council’s current net budget. To make matters worse, due to unfairness in the way local government funding has been allocated by the Conservative Government, Birmingham is £100 million a year worse off than if …
Today is 100 years since the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women and all men the vote for the first time. It gave the rights of democracy to 8.5 million women, raising the electorate from 8 to 21 million people. The Representation of the People Act 1918 was a vital step towards enabling women to have a say in the way our country is governed. Ten years later the Equal …
I am pleased that a popular bus stop is to be reinstated outside Northfield Shopping Centre. In October Transport West Midlands took the decision to decommission several bus stops in and around Northfield Town Centre as part of a pilot to review journey times on the local bus network. However the suspension of several bus services from outside Northfield Shopping Centre has caused disruption for …
I have been concerned by the damage that has been caused to the grassed areas of ‘Daffodil Park’, which runs alongside the River Rea and cycle route, off Tessall Lane. This has been caused by emergency repair works being undertaken by Network Rail, in liaison with Birmingham City Council and the Environment Agency, on the River Rea to prevent the river from impacting on the railway. Several …
Over the past few months, the Parliamentary agenda has been dominated by debates on the Government’s EU (Withdrawal) Bill which covers not whether Brexit should take place. Rather it covers the terms on which Brexit should be approached by the Government, including how environmental and other protections, together with UK citizen’s rights and freedoms that are currently guaranteed by EU …
Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter. In my first newsletter since Christmas and the New Year, let me wish you all a Happy New Year. Space prevents the newsletter covering all of what I have been doing over the past month. However, hopefully it provides a flavour of some of the local issues I have taken up as well as my actions in Parliament. You’ll find updates on food banks, community …
Every year around 10,000 parents have to face the unimaginable grief of losing a child. Nobody expects to bury their own child and when struggling to cope with the worst possible experience they will ever have to face, bereaved parents have the added worry of finding funds for a funeral they never expected to be planning. No parent who has gone through the heartbreaking experience of losing a …
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day which marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, – one of the sites where the largest mass murder in history took place. Millions of Jewish people, gypsies, homosexuals and others were murdered simply for who they were. Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us not only of the importance of commemorating the …
The End Child Poverty coalition has today published figures providing a new Child Poverty map of the UK. The figures reveal that more than half of all children in the UK’s very poorest areas are now growing up in poverty – compared to one in ten, in the areas with the lowest child poverty rates. In Northfield 34% of children are living in poverty and four constituencies in Birmingham feature in …
Welcome to my latest Animal Welfare Round-Up. This is a newsletter I regularly send out to update you on the issues that many of you get in touch with me about. My latest update covers the action I’ve taken on your behalf in the latter months of last year and the start of 2018.
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.
