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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 own Facebook page.
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 also view my Facebook page and LinkedIn profile.
Click on ‘Contact’ below to get in touch with me.
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This, from Will Hutton in the Observer today, is well worth reading
Privileged to be at very moving @RemSrebWestMids Memorial Breakfast at @YMCANS in Stoke-on-Trent on Wednesday. Probably my last time speaking as WM Chair. Thanks to all for your support over past three years #YMCANS
“A reset of UK policy towards Israel and Palestine by Andy Burnham will demonstrate his values and help earn him public trust.”
This morning I asked the government about the problem of superfast not-spots in urban areas. This has been an ongoing issue that affects a number of constituents in Birmingham Northfield and many of you have been in touch with me about it. I have been raising this in Parliament over the last year and have also met with internet service providers (ISPs), highlighting concerns about the lack of …
Some of you may recall, back in March, along with other MPs, I was pressing the Government to back-off on proposals which threatened to stop local councils and other public bodies from considering ethical factors when making procurement decisions:
Originally published in Bromsgrove Standard – 5 August 2016 This is a diary piece of good news and of bad news. During the General Election campaign last year, Conservatives in South Birmingham were rushing around claiming that Northfield was going to lose its swimming pool. Their claims were, of course, rubbish, as they well knew. Northfield pool was coming to the end of its life. The …
Birmingham City Council is planning to remove dedicated transport to and from school for children with special needs. Parents rely on these services to help their children get to school safely and in a mind-set prepared for learning.
Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter which covers local issues and developments as well as my actions in Parliament. This includes the response to the EU Referendum and the upcoming Labour Leadership contest, as well as local updates such as the reopening of Shopmobility and the fundraising for Sheila Dumbleton. I hope all of you and those close to you have a wonderful summer. In …
Leadership means understanding your part in building a social movement, not believing you are the personification of one. By Richard Burden Originally published by HuffPost, July 24, 2017 Traitors, backstabbers, Red Tories, Blairite plotters … all of us who have called for a change in Labour Leadership have had these kinds of labels thrown at us in recent weeks. Often they come from keyboard …
Last week, I attended the PACTS and Direct Line Constituency Road Safety Dashboard Awards. This reinforced the need for smarter focus on the issue of road safety as well as promoted a fantastic online tool on road safety progress called the Dashboard. Road safety is very important and must be promoted in order to ensure the safety of everyone, particularly at-risk groups. The event highlighted a …
Yesterday I sent out an email to local Labour members and supporters in the constituency. You can read my thoughts below: Dear Friend, As a local Labour member, I am sure you will want to know the latest on arrangements for Labour’s leadership election. You may have heard that most Party meetings have been put on hold by Labour’s National Executive Committee so I want to let you know about …
Three weeks ago it all felt so different. Britain had not yet voted to leave the European Union. The Pound had not plummeted. The Bank of England had not yet had to step in to steady the situation. The Prime Minister had not announced his resignation and the UK’s major political parties had yet not appeared to be in turmoil. None of us have lived through anything quite like this before and nobody …
Read and watch my question to the Prime Minister on the long-awaited publication of the Chilcot Report into the Iraq war: “May I also ask the House to pause for a minute to remember Robin Cook, who had the courage to speak up against the orthodoxy of the day, and the courage to speak out as a voice of sanity in 2003? The sequence of events that led to the UK’s participation in the invasion …
Tomorrow, the Chilcot Report into the Iraq war will finally be published. Ahead of publication, my thoughts have gone back to how it felt in the House of Commons – and outside – at the time. Sometimes it is easy to get hindsight mixed up with what we knew at the time, as we approached a conflict that was going to have such a profound effect on the Middle East and beyond. It was a …
On Wednesday I urged the PM to put mechanisms in place so Birmingham and Midlands voices are heard in preparatory talks and negotiations with the EU over Brexit.
Watch it here:
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.
