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.
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These are the main subjects on which I’ve written. Click here to view the full list of categories.
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Yes – West Midlands Police have serious questions to answer about their behaviour. But it is not the whole story. You wouldn’t know it from most of the commentary today, but this @TimesofIsrael piece provides important context around the Maccabi issue
Chair @SarahChampionMP has written with concern to Foreign Secretary @YvetteCooperMP over the Israeli Government’s treatment of @UNRWA and other INGOs, which run a range of services for Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Read more: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/98/international-development-committee/news/211214/international-development-committee-chair-urges-foreign-secretary-to-act-over-unrwa-restrictions/
Trump’s coup in Venezuela didn’t just break the rules – it showed there aren’t any. We’ll all regret that | Nesrine Malik
Richard Burden joined local campaigners from Oxfam, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Practical Action on Saturday to support their campaign to combat climate change. In Birmingham City Centre Richard accepted a large Valentines Day card to deliver to the Prime Minister. The card had been signed by people concerned about climate change and called on the Government to make the Climate …
Local authorities have a duty to provide accommodation for families with children and other vulnerable people who are either homeless or threatened with homelessness. Until now, Birmingham City Council has operated a banding system which gives priority to re-housing families who are staying in temporary accommodation provided by the City Council, over families who are also homeless but staying …
A debate on Global Security in the Middle East took place in Westminster Hall yesterday. The debate followed the publication of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report on the issue in August last year and the Government’s response in October. The debate focussed in particular on the situation in Israel and Palestine. Speaking in the debate Richard Burden described the current situation in …
A short visit to the Middle East over the New Year brought home to me the contradictory environment in which the Palestinians find themselves following the Annapolis summit in November. At one level, economic activity within the major towns of the West Bank was more buoyant than I have seen it for a long time. The markets were busy and shop owners appeared to be doing a reasonable trade in …
A short visit to the Middle East over the New Year brought home to me the contradictory environment in which the Palestinians find themselves following the Annapolis summit in November. At one level, economic activity within the major towns of the West Bank was more buoyant than I have seen it for a long time. The markets were busy and shop owners appeared to be doing a reasonable trade in …
Before Christmas the Government announced that the Financial Assistance Scheme would be extended. Richard Burden welcomed this announcement and the security it will bring to the 140,000 people who lost their pensions. The Financial Assistance Scheme was introduced in 2005 to offer financial help to people who lost their savings when their employer-sponsored pension schemes collapsed. The scheme …
Richard interviewed Lorna Fitzsimons of the British Israel Communications and Research Centre for the House Magazine in January 2008.
Read the article below.
It is time to build a new future for Longbridge and to answer the questions that can draw a line under the past. In a keynote speech to the 74th Annual Reunion of the Austin Ex Apprentices Association, Richard Burden MP called for action to make Longbridge synonymous with the environmental technologies of the 21st century just as it was synonymous with one of the defining industries of the 20th …
We should not be starry-eyed about Annapolis, but neither should we reject it Speech to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Rally House of Commons, 28th November 2007 On 28th November 2007 Richard Burden, MP and Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, gave a speech to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Rally at the House of Commons. Richard said that he understands the …
Questioning Angela Eagle MP, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in the House of Commons, Richard raised with her the importance of the Government making provision for skills in growth industries, such as environmental technologies. Richard has been pressing stakeholders in Birmingham to consider ways to encourage firms involved in this innovative business to set up on the Longbridge site …
Questioning Angela Eagle MP, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in the House of Commons, Richard raised with her the importance of the Government making provision for skills in growth industries, such as environmental technologies.
Richard has been pressing stakeholders in Birmingham to consider ways to encourage firms involved in this innovative business to set up on the Longbridge site.
Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab): May I tell my hon. Friend that last month I discussed with businessmen in the north of Gaza their plans just to export like businessmen in any other part of the world, but that their ability to do so is being strangled by the Israelis’ continuing blockade of the Karni crossing? The blockade does not affect the firing of rockets from Gaza, but does …
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.
