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
It has been an eventful week in Westminster. The Queen addressed both Houses of Parliament to mark her Diamond Jubilee. The controversial Health Bill returned to the House of Commons. But the big political event of the week was, of course, the Budget. The Budget will be a big disappointment to my constituents. The Chancellor could have done so many things to help, but he didn’t. Instead he chose …
This week saw the Health and Social Care Bill pass through the final stages in the House of Lords. This sadly means that it is likely to achieve Royal Assent and become law before Easter. David Cameron said the NHS was safe under the Tories, but he and his out of touch government are taking it backwards. They are wasting billions on this damaging reorganisation – opposed by patients, nurses and …
We finally entered Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt mid Sunday morning and spent the next 22 hours in the strip. As ever, Gaza was surreal. Things that logically could not sit side by side do so. To understand the place, you have to suspend disbelief. For the next 22 hours we did so.
I have just returned from a parliamentary delegation to the Gaza Strip. I will write more about the visit later this week but, for now, here are two videos filmed in Gaza – the first on a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and the second at the fish market on the seafront of Gaza City.
I was last in Gaza almost exactly three years ago. I was part of one of the first groups of MPs to enter after Israel's ‘Operation Cast Lead’ which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians and 352 of them children. Over 5,000 more were wounded.
Three years on, I had hoped by now to see how much had changed. But I write this near to - but not inside - Gaza.
The hot topic in Westminster this week is, once again, the NHS.
Not surprising, perhaps, given that the NHS is facing the biggest financial challenge in its history and, at the same time, the government has launched the biggest top-down reorganisation since 1948.
Lots of constituents have contacted me about the Cities fit for cycling campaign being led by The Times to improve cycling safety in British cities.
I have joined them in supporting this campaign and have added my name to a parliamentary motion calling on the government to take further action to improve cycling infrastructure and reduce the number of casualties on roads.
Pleased to have the chance to talk to racing driver Jason Plato at the launch of the MG KX Momentum BTCC Racing Team at the MG factory in Longbridge.
I am calling on the government to rethink its approach to policing after figures released today show that police numbers have fallen to the lowest for a decade, including the loss of 1,077 officers across the West Midlands. Today’s figures show that there are now 8,000 fewer officers on the streets in England and Wales, at a time when personal crime, which includes theft and violence, has gone up …
Earlier this week I signed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, honouring those who were persecuted and killed during the Holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial Day, on 27th January, marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – the Nazi concentration and extermination camp which is the site of the largest mass murder in history.
I’ve been invited to several Christmas events this year, but one in particular has stood out. Last Friday I joined representatives of West Midlands Police to present a special award to Billie Jayne Fulford, a year 11 student at St Thomas Aquinas school in Kings Norton. Until this year, the award has been named after Pat Manion, a former Deputy Head at the school who is remembered for …
On Sunday, Israel released 550 Palestinian prisoners, the second and final phase of the prisoner swap which secured the release of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in October. Israel reserved the right to make the final decision on which Palestinian prisoners to release, and which should remain in jail. Not surprisingly then, it attracted widespread criticism when not one of the 164 Palestinians …
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.
