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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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Why the voice of patients must stay independent.
My response to important new report from @TheKingsFund
While the eyes of the world are on Iran, Israel is using the opportunity to deepen its illegal occupation of the West Bank…
BREAKING: Overnight, under cover of the Israel–Iran war, Israel allocates another 574 million ILS (≈$155m) to settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, and 9 million ILS (≈$2.4m) to the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, spearheading attacks on humanitarian organisations.
In
People in #Gaza are still living in dire conditions while humanitarian aid is being blocked.
On 28 February, the Israeli authorities closed all crossings into the Gaza Strip, raising concerns about food security and fuel supplies needed to sustain humanitarian operations.
As you may have seen in the local news, yesterday the trustees of the MG Rover trust fund visited the Acorns hospice in Selly Oak to officially present Acorns with a donation of £23,000.
This comes at the end of the long and sad saga of the trust fund set up for former MG Rover workers when the company collapsed in 2005.
Last week the government voted for an unfair attack on the tax credits and working benefits which millions of people rely on to get by. Many working families are finding things really tough at the moment. They do the right thing, get up early, work a long day, but still they struggle to make ends meet. Many of them use tax credits and benefits to top up their income as without them work wouldn’t …
This Sunday – 27th January – is Holocaust Memorial Day. It marks the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp which is the site of the largest mass murder in history. Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity to remember the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. I encourage others to mark the day and to join …
It’s been six months coming but this morning the Prime Minister finally made his ‘Big Speech’ on Europe.
I am clear that the EU needs to change and work better for people in here in Britain. But the real tragedy of David Cameron’s speech today is that internal tensions in the Conservative Party won’t let him address the need for change in the EU in a sensible and pragmatic way.
New global development goals to end extreme poverty, improve health and education, and promote sustainability must be simple and measurable.
Today the House of Commons International Development Select Committee, which I am a member of, published a new report on post-2015 development goals.
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.
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.
