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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Real elation that every living Israeli hostage is now free. Even one still held would have continued the nightmare. It carries on for many Palestinians Israel has abducted. I wrote about Dr Husam Abu Safiya in February . Why is he still in captivity?
Last week, our chair @richardburden27 published on his own website some personal reflections about what Remembering Srebrenica has meant for him this year.

Israeli forces are said to have dropped more explosives on Gaza than fell on London, Dresden and Hamburg combined in the Second World War. The level of destruction is hard to fathom as is the humanitarian suffering.
Our Foreign Affairs Correspondent @SecKermani looks at the…
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 …
Let us be clear. There was no justification for Hamas’ military takeover in Gaza last week. Reports of summary executions and of those considered to be rivals being thrown from rooftops were nothing short of horrific. It opens up yet another chapter in the ongoing tragedy of Palestine. And once again, it will be ordinary Palestinians who will suffer the most.
A British MP who met one of the Palestinian Ministers seized by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight says that Israel’s action are illegal and are directed against people who have a key role to play in promoting peace. Richard Burden MP and four other Parliamentary colleagues travelled to the West Bank in January on a visit organised by the UK charity, Forward Thinking, to help promote …
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.
