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.
Never forget the crimes against humanity that international inaction allowed Radko Mladic to commit in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the world says “Never Again” we have to mean it.
He was held responsible for the killing of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys
Read in full: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/rakto-mladic-dead-bosnia-serbia-genocide-b3040343.html
RIP Dolly
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
I am very pleased to send you my report of some of the things I have been doing over the last year as your Member of Parliament. Times have been tough here in the past few years. Month by month local people have been seeing the prices of food, heating and travel rise faster than their wages. The number of residents – especially those under 24 – out of a job for over a year is …
This year’s Remembrance events have been special in so many ways. Most obviously, of course, it is 100 years since the outbreak of World War One. In June it was also the 70th anniversary of D-Day in World War Two. This is also the year in which British combat troops leave Afghanistan; a conflict that has claimed the lives of 453 UK service personnel in the past thirteen years. In amongst the …
After Parliament’s historic recognition of Palestine in October, I wrote the following article for the Chartist on the implications of the vote. The UK Parliament’s vote on October 13 to recognise the state of Palestine was, by any standards, historic. Some close to the Israel government have since sought to rubbish it, claiming that somehow Labour MPs were forced by Ed Miliband to vote for …
I know how fed up people are about the way Governments and Councils behave. Sometimes it seems like politicians are all show, talking a different language and not listening to what people are saying to us. I have always tried to be a different kind of politician – taking up the issues that matter to local people and giving residents a say in the decisions that matter to you. So I am really …
Lots of local people have written to me about the Recall of MP’s Bill, which is currently being considered in Committee Stage in the House of Commons. I absolutely support the principle of right to recall when an MP has done something wrong. I think it would be really important for strengthening our democracy – and may go some way to help to restore public trust in politics. I do not …
I am delighted that Bromsgrove Council have refused the planning application for a crematorium off New Inns Lane on the Birmingham/Bromsgrove border. As I said in the representations I put to Bromsgrove Council on this , there were just too many unanswered questions about how the extra traffic could have been accommodated on that road.
“Back to the Future” was the theme of the first ever Light Festival at Longbridge on Saturday. Hopefully, it will be the first of many. And “Back to the Future” pretty much summed up the theme of my whole weekend.
I wanted to let residents in the Allens Cross Area know that Post Office Ltd have sent me a letter outlining changes they are considering making to the Post Office on Merritts Brook Lane. A copy of their proposals for the area can be found here. They want to know local people’ views on this and you can see how to give yours on this letter too. Along with local Labour campaigner for the Allens …
With prices rising faster than wages, the last few years have been tough for public sector workers – including those in the NHS, who work incredibly hard, and often in challenging circumstances. It is a scandal that this Government went against the advice of the NHS Pay Review Body. George Osborne has broken his promise that there would be a 1% rise in public sector pay until 2015. If the …
Today I will cast my vote in Parliament to support UK recognition of the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel. The principle at stake here is a simple but key one for anyone seeking a just and durable solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Do we treat Israelis and Palestinians as equals or not? For Israelis, recognition of their state is something they have expected from the …
Poor old George Osborne. His government’s privatisation of Royal Mail seems to be hitting his own department even harder than the rest of us. Can you imagine – a letter he sent from his office in the House of Commons to another MP’s office took no less than five days to arrive? And guess what? The office which did not receive the letter for so long was mine.
Thursday’s rejection by Birmingham City Council of Sainsburys’ plan to build a new store on the car park of the Navigation Inn in Kings Norton is a tribute to the efforts of local people and businesses. A plan by the Co-op to build a supermarket facing The Green has also been knocked back. Reports in the press suggest that the Co-op may come forward with a re-designed scheme. Labour’s local …
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.
