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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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Good Growth in every postcode and hope in every heart.” Thoughts on Andy Burnham’s Manchester speech
Today’s report from the Independent Inquiry into white Working Class Educational outcomes, chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris, is welcome. The issues are long-standing – as I identified from my own experience as a Birmingham MP over 15 years ago
Birmingham Commemoration of Srebrenica Genocide, organised by @bhuknetwork Wednesday 1st July:
Wow! Over 5,000 majority over the total vote for Reform, Restore and Conservatives combined. Well done Andy! Thank you, people of Makerfield! 🌹
At the Labour Party Conference this week Ed Miliband talked about how the economy is not working for ordinary people, about increasing costs and the squeeze on people’s living standards. About how we need to build a One Nation economy that works for all of us, not divide the country between the richest and the rest. The reality of parents unable to feed their children is one of the starkest …
A quick video from the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, where there has been a great reaction to Ed Miliband’s speech.
Will you be a Labour +1 to help make Britiain a fairer place and change things for the better?
Many primary schools in Birmingham have been facing pressure from the Department for Education to become academies, whether or not they wish to do so. I have written about this online before here and here. One of those schools was West Heath Primary School in my constituency. This week the school found out that the Department for Education has decided not to continue the forced academy process …
Over 60 British MPs from across seven political parties have signed a parliamentary motion supporting UN recognition of Palestine.
The MPs signed the motion after the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared his intention to ask the UN General Assembly to recognise Palestine as a non-member state when the General Assembly meets between 24 September and 1 October.
On Wednesday I joined a cross-party delegation of MPs, City Council leaders and business representatives from Birmingham to meet with the Prime Minister. We wanted to talk to him about some of the challenges Birmingham faces – and also the opportunities they present. Issues like how we attract inward investment, how we build the transport infrastructure our region needs, how we develop skills and …
I know, I know: when you say the word ‘Northfield’, the first thing that comes into your head is not likely to be ‘seaside’, is it? But that is what the South Birmingham suburb became during those glorious days of sunshine between 25th and 29th July. With help from Yellow Bus Events of Sheffield, and tons of sand, the normally grey Price’s Square on Northfield High Street was transformed into the …
The Birmingham Post has reported today that the MG Rover Trust Fund is to be wound up after over seven years – without a penny going to the 6,500 former workers who lost their jobs in 2005. The trustees seem to have given up hope of the Phoenix Four ever putting the funds in to the trust which they led employees to believe they would. If reports are true, the trustees’ decision may be realistic …
This week Parliament rose for the Summer recess. At the end of the week, schools in Birmingham break up for the summer too. But some of them do so not knowing what the future will look like come September. Over the past few months, I have been trying to get to the bottom of what is happening in relation to the Department for Education pressuring a number of primary schools in my constituency to …
The UK has a successful automotive industry – but we must build a long-term framework for growth On Sunday, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone was won in a Red Bull, one of the eight F1 teams based here in the UK. And whilst I don’t want to take anything away from Mark Webber’s Australian pedigree, he too lives here in Britain. The UK is also home to seven volume car manufacturers, six …
Last week I joined the Royal British Legion in the House of Commons to promote the creation of Community Covenants across the UK.
The event highlighted the importance of local communities getting behind the Armed Forces community in their own area and honouring the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant in practice on the ground.
MPs welcome independent report on Palestinian children in military custody Members of the UK Parliament have welcomed the publication yesterday of a hard-hitting report by senior British lawyers on the treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli military law. The report – funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – found that Israel is in breach of a series of articles under the UN …
I was pleased to join cancer awareness nurses at Westminster today as Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Awareness Roadshow made a special stop outside the Houses of Parliament.
The Roadshow has been touring towns and cities across the UK so that people can learn more about the steps they can take to reduce their risk of cancer and the importance of spotting it early.
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.
