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 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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Abolishing patient watchdog leaves NHS ‘marking own homework’, councils warn
In otherwise wide ranging interview with Health Secretary, James Murray, regrettable that @BBCr4today didn’t ask why the new Health Bill, to be debated today will scrap independent patient and public voice in health &social care. Here’s why govt is wrong
Perceptiveness and blinkers: thoughts on Tony Blair’s agenda for a “Radical Centre” in UK politics
Eid Mubarak to all celebrating Eid Al-Adha
Celebrity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As a lifelong motorsport fan, I have been lucky enough to get to know some of the key figures in F1 over the past twenty years or so and to be at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix most years. Even so, I still get a bit star-struck when I am in the F1 paddock. Part of me still feels like the 13 year old me who was at a Grand Prix for the …
Sir Keir was right to signal once again that there is no place whatsoever for antisemitism. But I was disappointed by other statements in his address to Labour Friends of Israel. Originally published by the Independent, November 18, 2021 In his speech to the annual lunch of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) this week, Keir Starmer said “true friends will always be frank.” He is right about that. So …
I was on a driving holiday in north Italy and southern France. On 9/11 we were caught up for hours in what seemed like an endless traffic jam outside Nice. Having finally given up on that day’s journey, we checked into a small hotel in Sanary-sur-Mer. Turning on the TV, shocked doesn’t begin to describe our reaction to seeing CNN footage of the plane hitting the South Tower under headline …
Personal thoughts on the unfolding tragedy A modest donation to an NGO delivering emergency aid on the ground. A series of tweets expressing shame and anger; even writing this piece itself. They all feel so futile in response to the horror that is taking place in Afghanistan. But they are all I have got right now. For me it also feels personal. A friend of mine who was an international aid worker …
Roadside signs near Hollymoor West Midlands Ambulance Service Hub speak for us all.
Still overwhelmed and so grateful to Amy Watson, Rebecca Debenham, Sue Allen, Max Shanahan, Dave Tubby, Lesley Shedwick, Arron Stuart Blake-Knight and Giovanni Spoz Esposito for last night and for the lovely messages from those who could not be there. Thanks for the gifts too. I feel really privileged that you have written this poem for me, Spoz. You are all amazing and it has been great working …
First of all, thank you to everyone who has sent such kind messages to me after last night’s result in Birmingham Northfield. Even though I never took this election – or any election – for granted, it is still a big blow to lose the seat I have represented for 27 years and which is my home. So all those messages mean a lot to me. It has been an honour to serve the people of Birmingham …
The Prime Minister’s bid to call a snap General Election just before Christmas will not sort out Brexit as he claims and the way he is going about it is bad for democracy. Why do I say that? Last week Boris Johnson’s Government won a vote in Parliament to give his Withdrawal Agreement Bill a Second Reading. In other words it was a vote to agree the Bill in principle to allow it to continue its …
Today’s “decisions are not just about whether this deal gets over the line, and getting Brexit done, but about what it means for our country.” For one of clearest explanations of the real dangers that Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal poses for our key industries – including for jobs and opportunities in the West Midlands – please read today’s speech in the Commons today from Labour’s Keir …
Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter with a round-up of news from September. If you would like to receive these updates by email, you can sign up here. Space prevents the newsletter covering all of what I have been doing over the past month. However, hopefully it provides a flavour of some of the local issues I have taken up as well as my actions in Parliament. You’ll find updates on the …
Nobody has ever seen anything like this. We have a Prime Minster who has been found by the highest court in the land to have acted unlawfully in asking the Queen to shut down Parliament for five weeks. The Prime Minister seems to have been so sure that he would get his way that he did not even put in a witness statement to the Court. The judgement could not have been more damning. On the basis of …
Whether you voted Leave or Remain back in 2016, there is one thing we can all agree on: the psychodrama that is Brexit has gone on long enough and it needs to be brought to a conclusion, one way or another. As an MP I feel this as acutely as anyone. It is not just that arguments over Brexit have dominated debate in Parliament and beyond. The issue has created an all-pervasive atmosphere that is …
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.
