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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.
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Click on ‘Contact’ below to get in touch with me.
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Israeli forces are said to have dropped more explosives on Gaza than fell on London, Dresden and Hamburg combined in the Second World War. The level of destruction is hard to fathom as is the humanitarian suffering.
Our Foreign Affairs Correspondent @SecKermani looks at the…
Some personal reflections on what Remembering Srebrenica means in 2025 – for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the wider world and here in the UK..

“Two years after 7 October and the kidnap of my parents, hate is in fashion. For all our sakes, we need compassion” | Sharone Lifschitz | The Guardian
Remembering all those killed and those taken hostage in southern Israel two years ago today. Thoughts with those who lost loved ones and solidarity with the families of those still held in captivity.
This by @JeremyBenAmi, who lost friends that day, is very powerful. #October7
Two years after October 7, @JeremyBenAmi writes that to honor the victims and end the cycle of horror, we must reclaim a word too often scoffed at and shied away from: Peace.
🔗 https://jstreetdotorg.substack.com/p/two-years-after-october-7-it-is-time
WELCOME NOTE Welcome to my first newsletter of 2016. This newsletter goes through some of the most recent developments and initiatives I have been campaigning on including protecting funding for the Birmingham-based Illegal Money Lending Team who prosecute backstreet loan sharks and calling for the safeguarding of local council’s rights to ethically invest. Also in the news are the ongoing …
As you may have heard, the national Boundary Commission has been reviewing the numbers of Councillors there should be on Birmingham City Council in the future and the boundaries of the areas from which they should be elected to represent. Those areas are known as “wards” as I am sure you know. I wrote an article recently for the Bromsgrove Standard, but I wanted to write another piece to tell you …
Today, the 27th January, marks Holocaust Memorial Day and the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The day provides us all with an opportunity to remember the millions who were killed in and affected by the Holocaust and other genocides.
Here’s a test for you. Is Rubery in Birmingham or in Bromsgrove? And if Rednal is in Birmingham, what about Rubery-Rednal? And are Rubery and Rednal in Longbridge or is Longbridge in Rubery and Rednal? Or are they all next to each other? Confused? You should be. It all sounds a bit like one of those riddles you used to get at school, doesn’t it?
Yesterday I met with a number of student representatives to show my support for their opposition to the government’s student finance changes. The Tories have said they will be completely cutting the availability of maintenance grants to students, effective from September 2016. These maintenance grants are in place to support students from the poorest backgrounds and more than half a million …
Welcome to the latest issue of my Animal Welfare Round-Up, where I regularly update you on some of the causes I have recently been taking action on. You can read my previous issues here.
The Dog Meat Trade
Towards the end of last year, a number of constituents contacted me about the dog meat trade in Asia.
Laws under which Israel arrests and detains children in the Occupied Territories are different depending on whether a child is Palestinian or Israeli. That is inexcusable. It is just over four years since I wrote a Huffington Post article about Palestinian children in Israeli custody and the conditions to which they are subject to. As I said then, it is shocking when you hear about some of the …
In the last month my team and I have referred about the same number of people to the foodbank for assistance as we did in the ten months before that. By Richard Burden Originally published by HuffPost, 24 December, 2015 Last week, I called in to say hello at Northfield’s local Trussell Trust foodbank. Back in the Commons I always hear Government ministers talk about Britain’s strong …
Thanks to Billie Shannon of St Laurence Junior School for designing this card as well as to all other children from schools in Northfield who entered my Christmas Card competition this year.
The lights are up and anticipation is building for Christmas Day. And so I thought for my final article of the year it would be an apt time to be thankful and recognise the role of community in the area and the importance of standing up for Bournville College’s future. At the very heart of communities up and down the country are local schools and colleges. Bournville College is of course at the …
Today I asked the Chancellor at PMQs about the England Illegal Money Lending Team – based in Birmingham. The England Illegal Money Lending Team is national organisation which investigates, prosecutes and supports victims who have fallen into the clutches of loan sharks. The scheme has helped over 24,000 loan shark victims. It costs £3.6m to run but has got £63million of illegal debts written off …
With winter and colder weather on the way, I want to encourage everyone to take advantage of available help, support and techniques for keeping energy bills low and heat efficiency high.
There are a number of schemes available which you may be able to benefit from.
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.
