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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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Real elation that every living Israeli hostage is now free. Even one still held would have continued the nightmare. It carries on for many Palestinians Israel has abducted. I wrote about Dr Husam Abu Safiya in February . Why is he still in captivity?
Last week, our chair @richardburden27 published on his own website some personal reflections about what Remembering Srebrenica has meant for him this year.

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…
Last year the House of Commons International Development Committee, which I am a member of, published a number of reports including:
Afghanistan: Development progress and prospects after 2014
Tax in Developing Countries: Increasing Resources for Development
Yesterday there were debates in Parliament covering these two reports.
Yesterday I spoke in a Commons debate on promoting manufacturing in the West Midlands.
You can read my speech below – and the debate in full is available online here.
Last week, The Report on BBC Radio 4 looked at our rail system – including the delays and cancellations of London Midland train services we have seen in the West Midlands in recent months.
I was interviewed for the programme, which you can listen to online here. The section on London Midland starts at 14.45 minutes in.
Northfield and North Pole. They both start with ‘North’. You would think that is about the limit of the similarity between my constituency and Santa’s home. Not this year. For two days just before Christmas, Northfield High Street was dominated by a giant inflatable snowman. Across the square, complete with snow machine creating a not-too-cold blizzard, were two Christmas scenes. One even broke …
My political highlight of the year – published in The House Magazine’s Year in Review.
Thank you to all the local schools who took part in this year’s Northfield Christmas Card Competition.
Congratulations to 10 year old Eboni Green from St. Brigid’s Catholic Primary School for designing the winning image (left) in my constituency Christmas competition.
Long term unemployment remains stubbornly high in Birmingham and the government’s Work Programme is not lifting a finger to help.
The Labour Market Statistics for November 2012 were published yesterday.
The Chancellor should use this week’s Autumn Statement to cancel the government’s new year 3p per litre petrol tax rise that will hit local people hard when it comes into force on 1st January 2013. At a time when the cost of living is rising, our recovery is fragile and this out of touch government is giving 8,000 millionaires an average tax cut of over £107,000, it cannot be right to hit middle …
The International Development Committee has today published a new report on UK aid to Rwanda.
The report says that the UK should not provide general budget support to Rwanda in future since, according to the recent UN report, the Government there is continuing to support the M23 Rebel Group fighting in the DRC.
Last week saw an end to the long and sad saga of the MG Rover trust fund.
It is now more than seven and a half years since the Phoenix Four made their promise to set up a trust fund for former MG Rover workers, when the company closed in 2005.
After seven and a half years of waiting, the money – initially anticipated to be in the millions – has never appeared.
This week the United Nations General Assembly is expected to vote on upgrading the recognition of Palestine at the UN. Today I have written an article for the Huffington Post calling on the UK government to support Palestine at the UN without preconditions. “Proper recognition of Palestine by the UN General Assembly is not the same as peace in the Middle East, but it is a step on the road …
The International Community must press for an immediate ceasefire, not only “restraint”. My article in the Huffington Post today is online here. You can also help the people of Gaza in a practical way by donating to Medical Aid For Palestinians’ emergency appeal online here. See more about MAP’s work online here. Gaza: Leaders play to the Gallery, the innocent suffer but will the …
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.
