News archive – 2014

Posted on 2014-12-15 | 11:29

Roger has called for a full investigation into the UK’s knowledge of and complicity with the torture of detainees.

He commented: “While accepting that all countries have a right, and a duty to their citizens, to defend themselves against unprovoked and indiscriminate attacks, it is self-defeating for a country’s security forces stoop to the same levels as organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. For this reason it is right that the CIA have been heavily criticised for the tactics they used against prisoners taken in military action in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11.

“The use of torture to obtain confessions is totally unacceptable behaviour and merely drags the torturer down to the same level as those individuals who have carried out indiscriminate acts of barbarism. There are plenty of other ways that information can be gathered from detainees without the use of torture.”

Posted on 2014-12-03 | 12:54

On Monday 1 December Roger spoke in a Westminster Hall debate to condemn the current “tourniquet around Palestine”. He argued that while America continues to support Israel, the UK Government or even the EU will not be able to stop the ongoing misery in Palestine.

Roger, who tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an embargo on arms sales to Israel in response to this summer’s appalling violence, pointed out that the American Government provides more than $2.5 billion-worth of arms to Israel every year.

Said Roger: “The Israeli Government have no interest whatever in negotiating with the Palestinians or in trying to reach a settlement. I wish I could have better hope for the future of the middle east, but I despair—day by day, more and more—of whether there will be a solution. I fear that the only resolution will be through conflict. That is not what I want, and it is not what the people of the middle east want, but that is what is going to happen.

"I can see no desire on the part of the Israeli Government to negotiate and I cannot see the American Government doing anything to undermine the position of Israel. I say again, therefore, that I view the situation in the middle east with despair. I hope that I am totally wrong, and that at the end of the day there will be negotiations—including with Hamas, which has to be involved—but I simply cannot see any of that happening. We may wring our hands in this Chamber, saying that we should do this or that, but I am afraid that people in Tel Aviv are not listening.”

You can read the full debate here.

Posted on 2014-11-03 | 11:48

At an event in his constituency Roger spoke about the recent backbench debate which took place on the subject of Palestine, and set out his views on the future for Israel and the Palestinians.

This is what Roger said:

“I have supported, and still support, the right of Palestine to be recognised as a State and I would have been more than happy to have voted for the original Motion calling for this. Unfortunately the mover of the Motion decided to accept an Amendment tabled by Jack Straw, Menzies Campbell and Sir Alan Duncan which called for a ‘negotiated two-state solution’ and I am on record as saying that, as every day passes, this is becoming more and more unachievable.

Gaza is almost 100 percent Palestinian and 70 percent of the population of Jordan, on the East Bank of the River Jordan, is also Palestinian. On the West Bank of the Jordan is another Palestinian area containing Jerusalem but the West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and, more importantly, they have pursued a policy of colonisation of the West Bank which has resulted in huge numbers of Israeli settlements being built. Even as the recent conflict in Gaza was ending the Israeli Government grabbed another 1000 hectares of land, despite international condemnation, and members of the current Israeli Cabinet delighted in announcing that they would be building another settlement on this Palestinian land.

The West Bank is, therefore, becoming more and more populated by Israeli settlements and the Palestinian population in the West Bank are being pushed off internationally recognised Palestinian land. Furthermore, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions, Gaza is separated from the West Bank by Israel in a similar way that East and West Pakistan was separated by the State of India prior to East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh.

The idea, therefore, that a ‘two-state solution’ can come about is in stark contradiction to what is happening, day by day, on the ground in Palestine and I disagree with the views of Jack Straw, Menzies Campbell and Sir Alan Duncan who believe that this can still happen. If a negotiated settlement does, eventually, take place between Israel and the Palestinians then, in my opinion, it can only be done on the basis that there is a three-state solution and not a two-state solution.

Apart from Israel and Gaza there will be a third state on the land in the West Bank which would be populated by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers who are increasing by the day and there would have to be some form of joint (Coalition) Government running that state with the City of Jerusalem having an international status, similar to the Vatican and being open to worshipers from all religions.

The idea that the Israeli settlers who are colonising the West Bank would just leave their settlements and transfer back into Israel is not, in my opinion, going to happen and the only way that Palestinians who were exiled many years ago could have their ‘right of return’ to Palestinian land is if they return to the West Bank or Gaza because they will not be allowed to return to the State of Israel.

I believe that a ‘three-state solution’ is the only viable solution that could be achieved because, otherwise, I can foresee Israel, particularly under its current right-wing Government, continuing and accelerating its colonisation of the West Bank until, eventually, a Jewish majority occurs whereupon Israel will then seek to incorporate the West Bank into the landmass of Israel in order to achieve a ‘greater Israel’ which is exactly what the fanatical Jewish theologists have always wanted.”

Posted on 2014-10-20 | 12:09

Roger has pledged his support to the campaign for mandatory CCTV inside UK slaughterhouses. The campaign – which is now supported by 159 MPs – was launched after a three-year investigation by Animal Aid revealed widespread breaches of welfare laws.

Slaughterhouse workers were filmed: kicking, punching and beating animals; burning them with cigarettes; picking them up by their fleeces and throwing them into stunning pens; and dragging them by their ears. Animal Aid also recorded animals being improperly stunned and coming round again, and suffering painful electrocution instead of being stunned. Roger signed a parliamentary motion (an Early Day Motion) calling for mandatory CCTV to monitor working practices inside UK slaughterhouses and reiterated his support by agreeing to be photographed with a campaign banner.

Says Roger: ‘There can be no excuse for cruelty to animals. It is utterly unacceptable for animals to be mistreated in this way, particularly in a country where there is a public consensus around the importance of animal welfare. I therefore support Animal Aid’s campaign to install CCTV in all slaughterhouses, to ensure that this abuse does not continue and those who carry it out are brought to justice. Unfortunately, this is a by-product of the factory farming system, where animals are treated as commodities to be produced as cheaply as possible rather than as living creatures which should not be made to suffer. We need to re-think the way animals are treated to ensure that this kind of gratuitous cruelty stops now.’

Says Kate Fowler, Head of Campaigns with Animal Aid: ‘There is no excuse for the savagery we filmed inside some slaughterhouses, and yet it went on right under the noses of vets stationed there to monitor welfare. Clearly, we need a more robust regulatory system, and CCTV can play an important part in deterring and detecting welfare breaches. We are very grateful for the support of Mr Godsiff and his compassionate colleagues.’

In a 2014 YouGov poll commissioned by Animal Aid, 76 per cent of British adults support CCTV being made mandatory in all UK slaughterhouses (with independent monitoring of the footage). When taking into consideration only those who expressed a view, that figure rose to 87 per cent. A petition on the government’s Number 10 website has already attracted more than 36,000 signatures. It can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/64997

Posted on 2014-10-18 | 04:19

Following the disgraceful revelation that UK-manufactured tear gas was used against unarmed protestors in Hong Kong, Roger tabled Parliamentary Questions to press the Government on its arms exports policy.

He commented: “It is utterly disgraceful that UK companies continue to make a profit by selling weapons which are used against civilian demonstrations. It is not acceptable for this to be down to the “conscience” of individual arms companies, if indeed they possess such a thing—we need a coherent Government policy which prevents the export of equipment which will be used for internal repression.

“In Hong Kong, we are seeing repeated the kind of awful scenes which have already taken place in Gaza and Bahrain. The world is horrified at the abuses which are perpetrated against civilians, and the world also sees that the equipment used to carry out these atrocities is stamped with ‘Made in Britain’. Is this really the image of the UK we want to be spread around the world? Do we want to be the country which helps dictators to remain in power by oppressing their own citizens?”

Roger tabled Written Parliamentary Questions to ask the Government what assessment is carried out of the risk of tear gas being used for internal repression before an export licence is granted; under what circumstances of internal repression or violation of international humanitarian law an export licence for tear gas would be suspended or withdrawn; and how much tear gas the UK exports each year.

Posted on 2014-10-17 | 12:04

Said Roger, “Diwali is the festival of lights and is an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn every year. This year it will be happening towards the end of October. The festival signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair and extends over a five day period.

I know how important Diwali is to my Hindu constituents and it is also celebrated by my Sikh and Sri Lankan constituents. The festival is one of joy and hope for the future and I offer my very warmest congratulations to all of my constituents who will be celebrating it.”

HAPPY DIWALI AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Posted on 2014-10-10 | 11:25

Roger has welcomed the decision by the Home Office to take the passport service back under its control. The passport service was outsourced as part of the Government’s quasi-privatisation of public services, which resulted in a backlog of more than 537,000 passport applications in late June.

Said Roger: “This was another classic example of the mania of the Tory/Lib Dem Government and neoliberal economic deregulators to privatise and outsource public services, on the bogus pretence that it would be more efficient and give better value for money.

“The outsourcing of the passport service bought no benefit whatsoever to customers. It resulted in the closure of 22 passport centres and the loss of 550 jobs, as well as the closure of many overseas units. When this daft policy descended into crisis absolute panic took over, and temporary staff were brought in without experience and passport applications were not being properly vetted. Our society may pay for this in the future if it turns out that a passport has been issued to somebody who poses a threat to the British public.

“The only beneficiary of this madcap policy were the Chief Executive and managers of the privatised service who, no doubt, have received generous bonuses for hitting so-called ‘performance targets’, although the Government will not reveal whether this is the case on the spurious grounds of ‘contract confidentiality’!”

Posted on 2014-10-10 | 04:43

Roger is supporting health workers taking four hours of strike action on Monday over the Government’s refusal to pay them the living wage or permit the recommended 1% pay rise.

Commented Roger: “Hard-working health staff who do essential work for low wages have now been denied a pay rise for five years, meaning that their wages are falling in real terms as bills continue to increase. The Government is trying to claim that they are refusing staff a pay rise in order to save jobs, but this is untrue—last year 10,000 NHS jobs were cut as part of the latest attempt to “restructure” the NHS, or in other words make it easier for private companies to tear our health service apart in search of fatter profits.

“I support the health workers who are striking on Monday, and I urge the Government to listen to people who do essential work and who are struggling to survive on a low wage as the cost of living continues to rise.”

Posted on 2014-10-09 | 12:10

Roger is supporting International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October, a UN-led campaign to raise awareness of gender inequalities and abuse suffered by girls around the world. This year’s theme is “Empowering adolescent girls: Ending the cycle of violence”.

The Labour Party has made stopping violence against women and girls a key priority for their programme for Government. Earlier this year, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP announced that a Labour Government would bring in new legislation to give better support to victims of violence and bring perpetrators to justice. And in the summer the Labour party appointed Seema Malhotra MP as the first ever Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence against Women and Girls.

The Labour Party has committed to:

Introducing a new Commissioner of Domestic and Sexual Violence to sit at the heart of Government and ensure victims’ voices are being heard.

New national standards for policing to drive up performance across the board.

Introducing compulsory sex & relationship education in all state-funded schools, so young people are taught that no form of violence in relationships is acceptable.

A new £3million annual fund for refuges supporting victims of domestic violence.

New FGM Protection Orders to stop children suspected of being at risk of FGM from being taken abroad.

Roger said: “I want girls in Hall Green to grow up with the knowledge they won’t face discrimination because of their gender, and without the fear that violence will be used against them. It is important that we continue to fight for gender equality and speak out against violence and discrimination – in our local area, but also across the country and internationally too.”

Seema Malhotra MP, Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls, said: “The global level of violence against girls in our country is horrific. All too often rape and violence are used as weapons of war, and in many countries discrimination against girls is deeply embedded in the national culture. International Day of the Girl is an important moment where we can stand side-by-side with women and girls across the world and say: ‘we will not stand for this. We want change.’

“And we need change in our country too. Teenage girls and young women are now the most likely group to be victims of domestic violence, thousands of girls are at risk of FGM and NUS report a growing number of sexual assaults at university.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to this growing violence. That is why Labour is putting this issue centre stage in our plans for Government.”

You can find out more about the UN International Day of the Girl at: www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/girl-child

Posted on 2014-09-29 | 11:59

Roger has written to the CEO of Service Birmingham to express his outrage that Birmingham citizens are being forced to subsidise Capita via the SB contract.

Service Birmingham provides computing and other services to Birmingham City Council at a cost of £126 million per year (£345,000 per day) in 2012. In the same year, Service Birmingham made operating profits of £21 million (£60,000 per day), giving it a profit margin of nearly 17%. These profits are funds which come directly from the pockets of Birmingham taxpayers, many of whom are struggling to cope with austerity and cuts to local government funding.

In his correspondence with Roger, Service Birmingham’s CEO disputed these profit figures but failed to provide alternative numbers. CEO Stewart Wren wrote that “the profits for Service Birmingham contribute towards the Group overheads for Capita Plc”, and also commented that SB “contributes” to Capita Group Plc profits.

Roger replied: “I can see absolutely no justification for this. It is utterly outrageous that money from the pockets of Birmingham taxpayers—who are facing a massive cut in council staff and services—goes to subsidise the running costs and profits of Capita. This seems to me to be an egregious misuse of Birmingham citizens’ public funds, which should be spent on public services for the city and not on further fattening Capita’s shareholders. It is particularly unfair given the amount of correspondence I have received from distraught and seriously ill constituents who have been waiting months for Capita to bother to carry out an assessment for their claim for disability benefits, many of whom are now facing serious financial problems because of these delays.”

In his letter, Roger wrote: “Your refusal to provide such basic financial information, in which there is a legitimate public interest, shows an extremely worrying lack of openness and accountability. The people of Birmingham, including my constituents, are the ones funding Service Birmingham. They therefore have every right to know how much of their money is being spent on public services and how much is being gifted to Capita.”

Roger has therefore put in a Freedom of Information request with Service Birmingham to find out what Service Birmingham’s adjusted profit figures are for each year of the contract, and how much of the funds Service Birmingham receives from the council go towards funding either Service Birmingham or Capita’s corporate overheads, rather than services for Birmingham citizens. He also requested the figures for what amount of the millions made in profits by Service Birmingham has been reinvested in improved services for the city, and what amount has been paid out to shareholders as corporate dividends or invested back into Capita.

Posted on 2014-09-25 | 12:02

Roger has condemned the Coalition’s proposed cuts to Birmingham Council’s 2015 funding, which will see staff numbers decline to less than a third of their previous level, as “utterly outrageous and very damaging to our city”.

He commented: “I am absolutely furious that the Conservatives have decided to seriously threaten—if not completely destroy—Birmingham council’s ability to offer the city’s residents, including my constituents, the basic services they rely on. Since the Coalition government came in in 2010, they have already cut funding to councils in the most deprived areas by £782 per household, and in richest areas by just £48. This is just more of the same—punishing the poorest for a crisis that they did not cause, while allowing the wealthy to avoid contributing anything like their fair share.

“If the Government are really so short of cash that they have to cut our city’s local government to shreds, why are they not cracking down on corporate tax avoidance or the use of tax havens? Why are the cuts not evenly distributed between UK councils? As the council Leader has pointed out, Birmingham will receive a cut equivalent to £147 per next year, compared to the national average of just £45. Birmingham citizens pay the same rates of tax as the rest of the UK—why should we accept a cut which is three times that suffered by the rest of the country? Some county councils, such as the Conservative-controlled Buckinghamshire or Hampshire, will actually receive a spending increase next year.

“It is outrageously unfair and corrupt that the Conservatives are pouring funding into areas where their voters live, while expecting poorer parts of the UK to take all the pain of spending cuts. I do not see why the citizens of Birmingham should be expected to sacrifice their essential local services, while people in other parts of the UK receive a budget increase.”

Roger has tabled Written Parliamentary Questions to ask the Secretary of State for Community and Local Government, Eric Pickles, why Birmingham’s funding is being cut by three times the national average; why some councils receive an increase in spending and others a decrease; why all councils’ budgets were not decreased by the same percentage; and whether he has bothered to carry out an assessment of whether the cuts will increase deprivation in the city.

Posted on 2014-09-25 | 01:12

Roger’s statement on tomorrow’s vote in the House of Commons is as follows:

IS is a uniquely barbaric organisation which has an avowed commitment to killing anybody who does not subscribe to its narrow sectarian view of Islam, and glories in beheading people who will not convert to their views. IS has even been ostracised by Al-Qaeda! Having said that, the situation in Iraq and Syria and, indeed, in the wider Middle East is not as black and white as some would like to portray it.

Without going over the history of Iraq, after the disastrous invasion the current Iraqi Government was elected (however imperfectly) and is a legitimate Government of the country. The new Government has committed itself to include Sunni members in the administration, unlike its predecessor Mr Malaki, whose refusal to include any Sunnis was a major contributing factor to the rise of IS.

  The new Government has requested that America and other countries give air support in trying to stop the progress of IS, much of which has been achieved with weaponry abandoned by the Iraqi army when whole brigades fled and left everything behind. The Obama administration, which is under pressure from the Republicans and the religious right, have put together a ‘Coalition’ of 40 countries, including five in the Middle East. As the request from the Iraqi Government is a legitimate one I have made it clear that I do not object to the United Kingdom giving logistical support, such as use of the British base in Cyprus, to the Americans and to other countries which are part of this Coalition.

  I have also made it absolutely clear that I am not in favour of NATO, as an organisation, being part of this grouping, and I believe that the Members of the Arab League have to take as much responsibility as America or anybody else in combatting IS. The five Arab countries which, allegedly, have joined the Coalition have got some extremely sophisticated aircraft at their disposal and these ought to be deployed in response to the request from the Iraqi Government.

The situation in Iraq is, therefore, entirely different from Syria. It is quite true that IS has bases in both Iraq and Syria, but Syria is in the middle of a civil war between the Assad Government and various other groupings of which IS is just one. There has not been any request by the Assad Government, or indeed by any of the various opposition forces, for outside intervention to combat IS. Before any outside intervention takes place this matter needs to be debated at the United Nations and authorisation given by the Security Council for any outside involvement. This will not happen because Russia will not agree to any intervention in Syria, which is its long-standing ally in the Middle East, and which Russia considers to be very much part of its sphere of influence. The rise of IS ought to be as much a threat to Russia as to anybody else in the world, and if Russia will not authorise a UN Mandate for outside international intervention in Syria against IS then there is nothing to stop it from taking action itself which, incidentally, would be very much welcomed by its allies the Assad Government.

Because there has been no UN Mandate for action to be taken against IS in Syria I am not supportive of the airstrikes that America has engaged in. I reaffirm that any action taken in Syria has to have international legitimacy through the UN which, incidentally, has a clear obligation to safeguard communities such as the Syrian Kurds or Christians who are threatened with genocidal extermination.

  In a nutshell, therefore, my position is that I have no objection to Britain giving logistical support to America and to the Coalition which it put together in response to the request by the elected Government of Iraq. I believe that British involvement should be limited to logistical support and not military support, and that there is a clear obligation on countries in the Arab League to respond to the request for assistance from the Government of Iraq.

For the reasons I have stated, the situation in Syria is totally different and any outside intervention should have the legitimacy of international law through the UN. I am not, therefore, supportive of the action that America has already taken without this international legitimacy, and although the Motion before the House of Commons on Friday contains much with which I would not disagree I will not be voting for it.

Posted on 2014-09-23 | 05:24

Roger was very pleased by the recent announcement that £800,000 would be made available to police forces around the country from funds seized by criminals under proceeds of crime legislation. This money will be used to support community programmes or reduce crime.

Balsall Health police commented that: “This is a great opportunity to put criminals’ money directly into Sparkbrook.” The force has previously been successful in its applications for new computers and bikes for Concord Centre, as well as for insurance and jackets for Streetwatch members.

Said Roger: “I have had a long battle with the Home Office to get them to concede that funds gained by criminal behaviour should be used for community restitution. I am delighted that they have finally agreed to do this, and I look forward to my local police force making more successful bids for funding which helps the local community and lowers crime.”

Posted on 2014-09-04 | 11:58

Roger has tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to stop selling weapons to Israel due to concerns that they may be used against unarmed civilians, or for acts of aggression or territorial expansion. The EDM reads:

That this House notes with concern that, despite Government commitments to keep all weapons export licences under review and despite the recent deaths of more than 2,000 civilians in Gaza, the UK is still permitting arms exports to Israel; further notes that the UK has licensed more than £40 million worth of military exports to Israel since 2010, including components used for drones, bombs and targeting systems; condemns the UK's long history of exporting arms to regimes which use them against their own citizens to suppress dissent and calls for democracy, or for external aggression; further notes that the laser guidance systems of Paveway II bombs - which were used against hospitals, schools and UN refuges in Gaza in the recent conflict - were produced in a factory in Fife, Scotland; further notes estimates that more than 50,000 such bombs have been dropped on Gaza since 8 July 2014; observes that under UK arms export rules, the UK may not issue an export licence for equipment that will be used for internal oppression; further notes with concern that the Ministry of Defence is currently working with Israel-based defence company Elbit Systems on a drone programme worth £1 billion; further condemns the Government's failure to withdraw any of the UK's 131 arms export licences to Israel; further calls on the Government to stop prioritising the profits of wealthy arms companies over human lives and global stability; and asks the Government to reconsider the UK's arms export policy to stop the use of UK-made weapons against civilians.

The EDM is online at the Parliament website at: www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/313

Posted on 2014-09-03 | 01:21

Governments must stop secret negotiations of international trade agreements and realise that public services are not saleable commodities.

Ever heard of TiSA? You probably haven’t—the Trade in Services Agreement, which would lead to weaker regulation in sectors including banking, is currently being negotiated in secret by representatives of governments from around the world. The text of the treaty is classified until five years after its provisions come into force, preventing the ordinary citizens who would be affected by the treaty even from knowing what it contains, let alone opposing it.

A financial services annex to the treaty which was leaked by WikiLeaks shows that 23 countries including Canada and the US, as well as the 28 EU member states, including the UK, are involved in these negotiations. The trade agreement could have devastating effects on governments’ ability to regulate to protect their citizens and their public services. It will lead to deregulation in sectors including financial services and public services, which will result in weaker legislation protecting citizens from another financial crash and economic crisis, along with large-scale privatisation of essential public services. TiSA would not only make it easier for profit-hungry corporations to grab public services, it would also prevent them being re-nationalised.

The treaty would “lock in” any privatisations which take place, meaning that essential services such as health, utilities, transport and education could not in future be returned to the public sector and run for the common good, rather than for private profit. It could also have a damaging effect on labour rights, removing hard-won protections for the most vulnerable groups such as migrant workers. It will also weaken governments’ ability to legislate to protect the environment and public health.

Roger commented: “This agreement is yet another example of governments’ rush to throw our essential public services into the hands of greedy, unscrupulous multinational conglomerates whose only concern is profit at any cost. Our public services should remain in public hands, accountable to the citizens they serve and whose taxes they are funded by. Services such as education and health simply are not profit-making commodities, and should not be treated as such. Some things, such as the health of our citizens, are too vital to be left in the hands of companies which care only for their profit margins.”

“We have seen, again and again, that when services are privatised the quality goes down and the price goes up. This is because, instead of simply trying to provide a good service at a reasonable price, services which have been privatised then start diverting public funds into providing shareholder profits and fat payment packages to chief executives. I do not believe that this is a good use of public money. If the UK Government is so sure that TiSA is a good idea, why are the terms of the treaty not open to proper democratic scrutiny? Why are those carrying out the negotiations refusing to listen to the voices of ordinary people?”

“The UK still has not recovered from the banking crash and recession, which were caused in large part by a lack of regulation to prevent banks taking unacceptable risks. The consequences of this were devastating, as the loss of global financial stability had the most severe impact on those who were already poorest and most vulnerable. Why on earth is the Government involved in negotiations to weaken regulations, making another devastating crash more likely? Why is the Government yet again prioritising the greed of multinational banks and corporations over the needs of the citizens who they were elected to represent?”

Roger concluded: “I am inherently suspicious of any international agreement which is negotiated in secret, without the knowledge of Parliament or the public. It is intrinsically un-democratic for Governments to hide what they are doing from their own citizens, and from the Parliaments which are supposed to represent the rights of those citizens. Why is the UK Government pushing for the “right” of corporations to make a killing by taking over public services, and the “right” of the financial services sector to engage in ever-riskier gambling which destabilises the global economy?”

“I call on the UK Government to release the full negotiating texts of the Trade in Services Agreement, so that the voices of UK citizens can be heard.”

Roger has tabled Written Parliamentary Questions to ask the Government why the text of the proposed Trade in Services Agreement treaty has not been made public; whether TiSA will contain provisions that would prevent increased regulation of the financial services sector; and whether it will contain provisions to allow or promote the increased privatisation of public services.

Posted on 2014-08-06 | 01:42

Roger has written to the new Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond MP, to express his horror at the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza. More than eighteen hundred Palestinians have now been killed, including 430 children, simply because they live in Gaza. Roger called on the Foreign Secretary to support international sanctions against Israel, at the level of either the EU or the UN, and to bring in an immediate arms embargo against Israel.

He wrote: "It is utterly unacceptable for UK weapons companies to continue making a profit by selling weapons which will be used against innocent and unarmed people, including children. I previously called on the Government to bring in an arms embargo, only to be told that all countries have a legitimate right to self-defence and weapons export licences to Israel were “under review”. However, the number of civilian casualties in Gaza has shown that Israel’s actions far exceed legitimate self-defence, and the UK must urgently reconsider its decision to continue selling the weapons which are used for this destruction and murder."

This month of bombing of a part of the world which is already heavily populated and under-resourced has caused a huge amount of damage to houses and property in Gaza, as well as its basic infrastructure. Roger also asked the Foreign Secretary what assistance the UK Government will provide to the people of Palestine to rebuild their lives when the current conflict ends. He called on the Government to urge Israel to end the blockade and allow essential building materials, food and medicine—at the very least—to enter Gaza.

Posted on 2014-08-05 | 11:23

Despite energy companies coming under pressure to cut household gas and electricity bills following a sharp drop in wholesale costs, there is no indication that consumers are going to get cheaper bills. Gas prices have reached their lowest level since September 2010 and were 38% below this time below last year, while electricity prices reached their lowest level since April 2010 and are currently 23% lower than June 2013.

Said Roger, “What a surprise that the big 6 are not going to lower energy bills and are, instead, charging customers an average of £100 more than last year. This merely shows, once again, that privatisation, or liberalisation as the companies like to call it, of the gas and electricity industry has brought no benefits whatsoever to customers but has enriched current and former owners and shareholders at the expense of consumers.”

Posted on 2014-08-01 | 03:32

Roger has given his strong support to proposals being considered by the Department for Transport for the doubling of the number of penalty points for drivers who are caught using a handheld mobile phone while driving.

Said Roger, “All the time I see drivers of vehicles flouting the law and using handheld mobile phones while driving. There have been some appalling tragedies associated with this and I am amazed that there are not many more accidents. Anybody using a handheld mobile phone - either speaking or texting - while driving is a menace to themselves, other road users and to pedestrians on the pavement. I would very much welcome doubling, or trebling, penalty points for this offence. Anybody can have a ‘hands-free’ phone fitted in the car and there is no excuse whatsoever for somebody using a handheld mobile phone.”

Posted on 2014-07-23 | 01:46

As the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza continues, Roger is among those calling for an immediate ceasefire on both sides and an end to a conflict which is becoming yet more bloody and pointless.

He commented: “This massacring of a civilian population, including children, which has already suffered so much under the blockade must not be allowed to drag on. Far too many innocent people have already died, while the international community has failed to negotiate a ceasefire let alone a lasting solution. For too long, the world has stood by and watched while the Palestinians have been treated as second-class citizens in their own country.”

“I believe the time has now come for the international community to consider sanctions against Israel. The Israeli military cannot be allowed to continue treating an occupied and dispossessed population of frightened and traumatised civilians as if it were a military target. Both sides need to stop firing, and the world’s leaders need to put pressure on Israel to negotiate a two-state solution. Otherwise, yet more lives will be pointlessly lost and the conflict will further destabilise the region.”

Roger has written to the Foreign Secretary to raise his concerns about the collective punishment of Palestinians, and has signed Early Day Motion 250, which reads:

That this House regards Israel's latest attack on the Gaza Strip, Operation Protective Edge, as a disproportionate escalation of violence against Palestinians; notes that since the end of Operation Cast Lead on 19 January 2009 Israel has killed 490 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; calls for an immediate end to Israeli military strikes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and military incursions into Palestinian population centres in the West Bank, both of which constitute collective punishment and are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention; calls for an immediate end to retaliatory rocket attacks from Gaza; and urges Israel as the occupying power to de-escalate the conflict.

Roger has also tabled Written Parliamentary Questions to urge Business Secretary, Vince Cable, to consider bringing in a weapons embargo on the UK’s trade with Israel, and to ask the Foreign and Commonwealth Office what guarantees it has sought from Israel that weapons sold to it by the UK will not be used on civilians in Palestine.

Said Roger: “The idea that weapons manufactured by UK companies are being used against defenceless civilians in Gaza is extremely worrying. I call on the Government to take steps to urgently investigate this matter, and to put a weapons embargo in place to ensure that UK exports are not worsening the conflict in the Middle East. It is shameful that UK companies are making a profit from the murders of innocent, unarmed people, particularly as this is happening with Government support and assistance.”

Posted on 2014-07-14 | 04:13

Roger has made it clear that he will not be supporting the emergency surveillance bill which the Government hopes to rush through Parliament this week.

Said Roger: “The Government have been aware for a year that some of the existing surveillance measures were likely to be ruled invalid and this was confirmed by the European Court of Justice in April. Instead of bringing forward legislation which could be properly debated by Parliament, the Government have left it until a couple of days before Parliament ends for the summer recess to bring forward emergency legislation which has to be passed by both Houses in a ridiculously short period of time!”

“I know only too well the difficulties which the police and security services have in monitoring, tracking and apprehending individuals and groups who are intent on undermining our tolerant society by conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, such as the plot by a gang of would-be suicide bombers at a house in my constituency in 2012. However, this legislation is an attempt by the authorities to ‘bounce’ Parliament into passing a snoopers' charter which could be used to intrude into the lives of everybody in this country.”

“The police and security authorities should have the powers to search out and arrest individuals who want to destroy our society”, said Roger, “but I am not convinced that rushed emergency legislation is necessary and I will not be supporting it.”

Posted on 2014-07-07 | 04:18

Roger is supporting a campaign urging Sainsbury’s to stop sourcing products from illegal Israeli settlements.

Sainsbury’s new Chief Executive, Mike Coupe, was taken to task at the company’s AGM in London on 9th July by human rights organisations and groups working for justice for the Palestinians. A loud and lively protest outside was matched by lobbying and questions inside the Queen Elizabeth Conference Hall, as campaigners dispute Sainsbury’s claims that it sources produce ethically. They accused the company of continuing trade deals with businesses which work in the illegal Israeli settlements, including the beleaguered company SodaStream - evidence, they say, that Sainsbury’s does not practise what it preaches.

Coupe has clearly pinned his colours to the mast. Protestors quote a press release of October 2013 in which Coupe wrote passionately about the “value of values”. He spoke about “the new fight” he was going to pick with competitors on the battleground of ethical trade, claiming that customers “have the right to know” about the produce they are buying and that shoppers care deeply about the ethical sourcing of goods. Campaigners aimed to put Coupe to the test at the AGM.

Spokesperson Hilary Smith said: “For over a year, we have been challenging Sainsbury’s to live up to its claim to be the most ethical of the high street retailers. We want Sainsbury’s to examine the practices of some of its partners in trade. In particular, we are concerned that some companies used by Sainsbury’s are complicit in breaches of international law because of their work in the illegal Israeli settlements. We feel that such companies are unfit business partners – unfit in any capacity, not just in their work in the illegal settlements. Shareholders raised these issues at last year’s AGM and were assured they would be considered seriously. Yet Sainsbury’s still stocks goods from these companies; customers buy them, believing that Sainsbury’s can be trusted to be ethical. We feel that customers’ trust in Sainsbury’s is misplaced.”

Ms Smith cited “reliable evidence” that a number of Sainsbury’s partners, including Mehadrin, operate extensively inside illegal Israeli settlements and that they have a track record of mislabelling the origin of their produce. The campaigners pointed out that in September 2013, the UK government issued its action plan, “Good Business: Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business.” This reminded businesses that they should treat as a legal compliance issue the risk of causing or contributing to gross human rights abuses wherever they operate. The document also referred to the need for companies in Britain to scrutinise their supply chains.

Mike Coupe and every member of the Sainsbury’s Board have received a letter, signed by a group of eminent individuals including Roger, urging the company to dissociate itself from companies which profit from violations of international law and human rights. A dossier of evidence against specific Israeli companies, including Mehadrin and Edom, accompanies the letter. In addition, a petition with over 5,000 signatures has been raised from Sainsbury’s customers and will be presented by Baroness Jenny Tonge at the AGM.

“This campaign will not go away,” said Smith. “After the G4S scandal, after Scarlet Johansson’s choice of Soda Stream over Oxfam, the public are increasingly aware of human rights issues. People on the street are very supportive of this campaign because it is rooted in justice, pure and simple. Over 5000 have signed our petition to Sainsbury’s. Mike Coupe must act on the values he claims to prize so highly and apply them to the human rights of Palestinians and to the rule of law in Palestine.”

Posted on 2014-07-02 | 11:46

Speaking after the news was announced that Bob Jones had died, Roger said “I was shocked to hear that Bob Jones had died at what is nowadays still a young age of 59.

  "I did not know Bob well, but I did have dealings with him both during his election campaign and afterwards as Police Commissioner. I always found him both engaging and responsive, particularly when I was trying to get the Home Office to set up a ‘restorative justice’ scheme in Sparkbrook in conjunction with local Police.

"Bob was a very honest and straightforward person who was not in favour of elected Police Commissioners – but as these have been imposed on the population, he took the view that he would make the best of what he considered to be a ‘bad decision’ until such time as a new Government could get rid of them. Sadly Bob will not be around to see the end of Police Commissioners.”

Posted on 2014-07-02 | 12:25

Roger has written to the Minister for Work and Pensions to express his concern at the ongoing delays in processing disability benefits, which are being caused at least in part by the incompetence of Atos.

Roger commented: “I recently had occasion to speak to Atos, to try to find out why a person who applied for ESA reassessment at the beginning of November had heard nothing by the end of June. I was told that Atos had been sitting on her file for more than half a year, before managing to find the time to fill in a form to send to her GP to request further information.

“I was also informed by Atos that one of the reasons for the backlog was that the company is understaffed. I asked whether this was due to recruiting problems caused by people not wanting to work for Atos, and I was quite surprised when the response was ‘yes’.”

Roger has therefore written to Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to ask whether his Department was aware that that Atos’ poor reputation is making recruitment difficult, and consequently worsening backlogs in processing benefit applications.

Said Roger: “If DWP is aware of this problem, it seems extremely inappropriate that Atos is being permitted to keep these contracts, when its own incompetence and reputation for being grossly uncaring has made it so difficult for it to recruit staff that the result is devastating delays. If the Department was not aware of it, the question then arises of how such a basic problem could have escaped ministers’ attention. It beggars belief that DWP are permitting assessments for the most vulnerable people in society to be handled by a company which is so publicly loathed that it cannot recruit sufficient staff to carry out its work.”

Posted on 2014-06-23 | 07:03

Roger is supporting a campaign by the union GMB to raise the national minimum wage for its members to £10 per hour. He commented: “In one of the world’s richest countries, it is shameful that people can work full time and yet still live in poverty or have to rely on benefits to provide for their families. With more people in poverty now in work than out of it, it is clear that the current minimum wage is too low to provide a decent standard of living.”

Birmingham is one of the ten areas in the country with the lowest average income, at just £12,793 per person each year.

Roger tabled a Written Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ask the Government to carry out a cost-benefit assessment of the impact of lifting the minimum wage to £10 per hour. He commented: “I doubt that the Government will bother to assess this. However, allowing employers to pay poverty wages benefits shareholders and CEOs at the expense of ordinary working people and, of course, the taxpayer. Why should wealthy corporations continue to have their wage bill subsidised by the Government while the people who made them rich live in poverty?”

Recent research by the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom project found that over the last 30 years the number of households below the minimum standard of living has more than doubled, from 14 per cent to 33 percent, even though the economy doubled in size over the same time period. The study also found that one in every six adults in paid work is poor, while around 1.5 million children live in households which cannot afford to heat their home.

Posted on 2014-06-19 | 11:14

Roger has tabled an Early Day Motion protesting the recent US Supreme Court ruling in favour of vulture funds. It reads:

That this House notes with concern the US Supreme Court's rejection of an appeal by Argentina against a ruling that it must repay in full creditors who purchased Argentinian debt at a discount on the secondary market, with the intention of extorting full payment; disagrees with the Court's decision to prioritise the greed of vulture funds over the Argentinian people's sovereignty and the country's ability to repay its legitimate creditors; observes that this case sets a worrying precedent and creates a disincentive for creditors to negotiate rather than demanding full payment; further notes that vulture funds have made sizeable donations to the Republican party and that Republican judges form a majority on the Supreme Court; expresses support for the people of Argentina, who should not be penalised in order to make hedge fund owners even more obscenely wealthy; supports the Argentinian government in prioritising the country's financial wellbeing over paying vulture funds; believes that it is unacceptable to purchase debt at the height of a debt crisis with the sole aim of profiting by suing the issuing country at the expense of its citizens; further expresses concern that if a similar case were to be heard in the UK courts, the same ruling in favour of vulture funds could be reached, unless the country concerned was one of the 40 covered by the Debt Relief Act 2010; and calls on the Government to bring forward the necessary legislative proposals to prevent this.

Commented Roger: "Why should the people of Argentina pay to make a small group of greedy billionaires even richer, at the expense of their country's finances and development?"

  www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/133

Posted on 2014-06-12 | 11:53

Roger has tabled an Early Day Motion to protest the Government's plans to allow fracking under people's homes without their consent. It reads:

That this House notes with concern the Government's decision to open a consultation on regulatory changes that would make it possible for energy companies to drill for gas under people's homes without the occupier's consent; condemns this attempt to prioritise the interests of big business over the rights of ordinary citizens and protecting the environment; further notes that this consultation was opened on a day when Parliament and the UK media were occupied with the recent election results, and is concerned that this was an attempt to evade proper public scrutiny; further notes that public opposition to these plans is estimated at 74 per cent and therefore observes that the Government lacks a popular mandate to institute this change; further notes that the many problems of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) include climate change, water, soil and air contamination, loss of protected habitats, and lower house prices in areas where fracking takes place; calls on the Government not to allow fracking to take place anywhere in the UK, and particularly where local residents who would be affected by it are opposed to it; urges the Government to listen to the voices of the majority of UK citizens; and calls for investment in genuinely sustainable technologies such as wind, wave and solar power, rather than an attempt to extract yet more fossil fuels regardless of the environmental and social cost.

Posted on 2014-05-30 | 11:27

Roger has written to Iain Duncan Smith, the head of the Department for Work and Pensions, and Andy Parker, the Chief Executive of Capita, to protest about the effects of the long delays in processing claims for Personal Independence Payments. PIP is paid to people who are seriously ill or disabled in order to help them with the extra costs of their condition.

Unfortunately, despite the disastrous failure of Atos’ contract to handle ESA assessments, the Government decided to allow Atos and Capita to take on the contracts for carrying out PIP assessments. The consequence of this is that PIP costs almost three and a half times more to administer than the benefit it replaced, and takes twice as much time to process. Roger commented: “I do not see how this serves either disabled citizens or the British taxpayer. The only people currently benefiting are the shareholders of Atos and Capita, who are making a profit at the expense of the wellbeing of seriously ill citizens.”

In the letters, Roger wrote: “The effects of these delays on disabled citizens cannot be overstated. At a time when they are already struggling to cope with severe health conditions, they are also forced to worry about paying the bills, paying the rent for their homes and putting food on the table, not to mention coping with the extra costs that come with disability. Many of the people who wrote to me about this emphasised that before they became disabled they had worked all their lives, paid taxes and never claimed benefits. They had paid into the system on the assumption that if they ever needed support the safety net would be there for them. They have now discovered that this is not the case.”

Roger was contacted by a man whose wife suffered a stroke, and who was still waiting for Capita to bother to turn up to assess her. He wrote: “It’s seven months since we have any money coming in bar my wife’s state pension. My savings are almost gone. The stress I am under is unbelievable. I just don’t know where to turn. My wife is getting depressed, she just sits and cries on the days Capita don’t turn up. She blames herself for having a stroke."

Said Roger: “I am appalled that this Government has once again permitted companies which are obviously inept and unscrupulous to be in charge of administering a benefit which is so vital to the wellbeing of this country’s most vulnerable citizens. I cannot understand how Atos in particular was permitted to be involved after the utter disaster of their handling of ESA claims. What on earth is the benefit to DWP or to the public purse of outsourcing services to private companies which perform them so poorly that they have to be redone, again at taxpayer expense? What is the benefit to society of pushing hard-working citizens into penury and misery because they have the misfortune to become ill?”

Posted on 2014-05-23 | 04:58

The Government have opened a consultation on whether to allow energy companies to start fracking under people's properties without their consent. There is widespread public opposition to fracking, and no appetite at all to force people to have fracking companies on their land without their consent.

Roger said: "I am curious about why the Government decided to open the consultation on fracking on a day when the entire media and all of Westminster is busy with the local election results. It's almost as though the Government don't want to draw attention to these proposals because they know people will be opposed to them..."

You can read the proposals here.

Posted on 2014-05-16 | 11:55

Roger has tabled an Early Day Motion to protest about the delays in processing Personal Independent Payments. The EDM reads:

That this House notes with concern the lengthy delays occurring in the processing of personal independence payments (PIP), with the National Audit Office (NAO) finding that claimants wait an average of 107 days, and often significantly longer; further notes that these delays are having a severe impact on seriously ill and disabled citizens, who are pushed into financial insecurity, poverty or destitution as a result; further notes with concern the additional stress and worry these delays cause at what is already an extremely difficult time; further notes that the NAO also found that PIP will cost almost three and a half times more to administer than disability living allowance, and takes twice as much time to process; condemns the refusal to pay PIP for the first three months after someone becomes ill or disabled, further lengthening delays and leaving newly ill or disabled people without any means of support through no fault of their own; further condemns the decision to pay carer's allowance only to people who are caring for a person in receipt of PIP, exacerbating the financial strain on newly disabled people and their families; deplores that the Government has once again permitted unscrupulous, uncaring and inefficient companies such as Atos and Capita to profit from damaging the wellbeing of ill and disabled citizens; further condemns the Government's lack of compassion for disabled people; and calls on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to take action to address those delays as a matter of urgency.

Do you have an experience of claiming PIP you think the Government should be aware of? Let Roger know by email to

Posted on 2014-05-16 | 03:01

Ahead of the crucial national meeting which will decide the future shape of the Cooperative Movement, Roger backed changes when talking with Cooperative supporters in his constituency.

Said Roger: “The Cooperative Movement in the UK, which was formed over 150 years ago, has been hijacked by senior executives and managers who have totally undermined the principles behind the movement, while ‘filling their boots’ and behaving in the same rapacious and greedy way as sections of the banking and financial community which caused the financial crisis of 2008.”

Roger has already urged the Government and the FCA to withdraw the Cooperative name from the Cooperative Bank now that it is 70% owned by hedge funds and vulture funds. He said: “Sadly, these people were allowed to plunder the Cooperative Movement with their reckless and self-serving behaviour because there was not proper oversight through the democratic structures. Therefore, there has to be change which will ensure that the Board of the Co-op exercises proper control over its senior executives and managers.

“I am not convinced that all of the proposals put forward by Lord Myners should be supported, but there has to be change. There is a huge amount of goodwill towards the Cooperative Movement and what it stands for, and an enormous amount of anger from Cooperative members, shoppers and supporters at what has been allowed to happen within many parts of the organisation.”

Posted on 2014-05-02 | 02:52

Roger is concerned that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States, poses a severe threat to the UK’s public services and its regulatory standards in a number of areas including safety, food hygiene, workers’ rights and environmental protection.

The idea behind TTIP is to level the differences between European and American regulations and so promote trade. In practice, however, trade barriers between the EU and the USA are already extremely low, and the effect of TTIP would be to drag regulations down to the lowest existing standard in each area, removing protections for people both as consumers and as citizens.

The Conservatives’ constant mantra is that red tape must be cut, but some rules--such as those on workers’ rights, food safety or the use of toxic chemicals--were put in place for very good reasons. For example, in the European Union it is illegal to sell beef which has been produced using growth hormones which have been linked to cancer in humans, or to sell poultry which has been washed with chlorine. These laws do not apply in the US, and TTIP would remove the legal barriers which prevent companies from selling meat produced in these ways in the EU or in the UK. In the EU almost no GM food is sold due to widespread consumer opposition, but in the US almost 70% of processed foods contain genetically modified organisms. TTIP would remove the legal barriers which prevent GM food being sold in the EU, legislating in accordance with food companies’ desire to reach new markets rather than citizens’ need for safe, natural food. The picture is similar for environmental legislation, where standards are currently much higher in the EU than the US.

TTIP would bring deregulation across a wide range of sectors, and remove hard-won regulations which protect human rights and the planet above corporations’ right to make a profit. The consequences of this would be dire for Americans as well as Europeans. While the EU would be under threat from the USA’s lower standards on consumer safety and employment law, American citizens would suffer from the introduction of the EU’s looser financial regulations, with the potential loss of the tighter regulation brought in since the financial crash. American businesses would suffer from the loss of the popular “Buy America” scheme to support local enterprise and jobs, while European workers would be under threat from lower US labour standards and poorer trade-union rights. TTIP would introduce a race to the bottom on the standards which help to protect people’s livelihoods as well as their health.

Also of serious concern is the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism which is included in TTIP. This would give companies the power to bypass the courts, and to use private tribunals to sue governments for enacting legislation which protected people or the environment at the expense of corporate profits. Roger said: “This sounds absurd, but it is already happening. The government of Argentina froze utility bills, only to be sued for lost profits by the transnational water and energy companies whose greed had caused bills to reach such a high level. Tobacco company Philip Morris is suing the governments of Australia and Uruguay over their policies on cigarette packaging, which were brought in to protect the health of their citizens. I do not want to see the UK in this situation.”

TTIP also contains provisions to remove distinctions between public and private providers of services, and between national and foreign providers. In practice, this would put the BBC, the NHS and the UK’s comprehensive schools under threat from transnational corporations. The UK’s public sector would be privatised even further, with a consequent lowering of standards and loss of public accountability. Roger commented: “Essential public services, such as health and education, are called ‘public’ for a reason. When these services are provided by the UK Government, they are accountable to UK citizens in a way which they simply would not be if they were provided by transnational corporations which, unlike the NHS, have absolutely no ethos of serving the public good rather than increasing shareholder profits at all costs.”

Roger said: “I am extremely worried about the possible effects of many of the provisions in TTIP on my constituents and on people throughout the UK. What is perhaps most concerning, however, is that these negotiations are taking place in secret. Most people are not even aware of TTIP, and the treaty is being negotiated without the chance for proper public scrutiny. Astonishingly, the European Commission intends to block public access to all documents on the TTIP negotiations for the next 30 years, prioritising companies’ desire for secrecy over the well-being of citizens.”

“I do not believe that most people in the UK would be happy to see food safety standards drastically lowered, or multinational conglomerates given the right to sue the UK Government--at taxpayer expense, of course--for enacting legislation which protects people’s health or the environment. This is deeply undemocratic, and I do not think people want this. I therefore call on the Government to act with greater openness and transparency with regards to this treaty, and for once to act in the best interests of UK citizens rather than to protect multinational companies’ profits. It is completely unnecessary and extremely dangerous to hand over any more power to greedy, unscrupulous corporations at the expense of the people of this country.”

Posted on 2014-04-28 | 11:57

Commenting on the news that Ministers and Government Departments have spent over £274,000 on legal fees in the past four years to prevent the publication of letters written by Prince Charles to politicians, Roger said: “I think it is outrageous that this amount of money has been spent on trying to hide letters from Prince Charles on ‘political matters’.

“Prince Charles, as the heir to the throne, is perfectly entitled to express a view to Ministers and Government Departments on political issues if he wants to, but he should not have any elevated status above elected politicians and members of the public. If I write a letter to a Government Department then it is in the public domain, and quite rightly so. Why should letters written by Prince Charles be treated differently? This is particularly important as some of his representations may well be about matters which affect the vast land holdings held by the Crown”.

The reason given by the Attorney General for not making public the contents of Charles’ letters to Government was that it would damage Charles’ ability to perform his duties as king, as the letters cast doubt on his political neutrality. Roger commented: “It is adding insult to injury that these legal costs are being paid for from the public purse. Charles has damaged his own neutrality--and therefore his ability to perform his future role as king--by his meddling in public affairs. Rather than allowing the public to see the truth of his lobbying and make up their own minds about his suitability as head of state, this Government has spent UK citizens’ hard-earned taxes on hiding the truth of Charles’ interference from public scrutiny.”

Prince Charles receives an income of £19m per year from the Duchy of Cornwall, which he “owns” as the heir to the throne. Despite his using this property to engage in a wide range of commercial activities, he is exempt from paying tax on this enormous income and does so only voluntarily. He is therefore able to pay tax under the arrangements which are most favourable to him, unlike all the UK citizens struggling to make ends meet, who are not permitted to pick and choose which taxes they pay.

Posted on 2014-04-23 | 12:56

Roger says: "I extend congratulations to constituents on the occasion of St. George’s Day, which is the 23rd April. St. George is the Patron Saint of England and among the most famous of Christian figures. The banner of St. George – the red cross of a martyr on a white background – was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers as far back as the reign of Richard I, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. Little is known about St. George himself but he is venerated in many countries of the world, and I send my best wishes to all of my constituents who celebrate St. George’s Day. I have also supported calls in Parliament for St. George’s Day to be made a public holiday in England."

Posted on 2014-04-22 | 02:37

Roger has welcomed the decision by Starbucks to move its European Head Office from Amsterdam to London by the end of this year, following the row which erupted over tax avoidance by Starbucks.

Said Roger: “Companies such as Starbucks have got away with evading their responsibilities to the UK by using ingenious and complicated tax avoidance procedures to avoid paying their fair share of Corporation Tax. This was totally wrong and has been rightly condemned.

“Be under no illusions, however. This decision by Starbucks was not made because the have suddenly accepted that they should pay Corporation Tax on profits they make in the UK, but because of consumer power. This resulted in many coffee drinkers changing to other outlets which do pay Corporation Tax in the UK.

“This sort of consumer power – hitting the company where it hurts the most, which is their profits – should not only be applauded and encouraged, but should happen more often.”

Posted on 2014-04-10 | 05:53

Roger is supporting calls for a change in the classification of betting shops so they are no longer in the same usage class as local businesses such as cafes or pubs. Creating a separate planning use class for betting shops would help to ensure proper scrutiny was carried out before a new betting shop could open, particularly in areas where there was already a high concentration. R

oger wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, to express his support for these proposals. He is concerned that these shops suck money out of the pockets of those who can least afford it, and may also lead to addiction or problem gambling, as well as increased crime in the area.

He commented: “In no way can yet another William Hill or Paddy Power be considered a good replacement for a much-loved local pub or café, and I do not believe that they should be in the same planning class. I hope that Eric Pickles will listen to those who do not want to see their local communities subjected to an ever-higher concentration of betting shops, instead of businesses which make a contribution to the local area.”

Posted on 2014-04-08 | 04:37

Roger is totally opposed to Government attempts to undermine the hunting ban. There is concern that the legislation around hunting foxes and deer with dogs may be relaxed, with the League Against Cruel Sports describing the proposed change as “revoking the hunting ban by the back door.

He commented: “At a time when so many people are struggling with the cost of living, it is unbelievable that this Government have nothing better to do than bring back a cruel ‘sport’ which the vast majority of people of the UK are utterly against.”

Roger tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to enforce the existing legislation which prevents hunting rather than weaken it. You can read the EDM here.

Posted on 2014-04-08 | 04:39

Roger has welcomed the decision by Birmingham City Council to publish details of its multi-million pound outsourcing deal with Capita, which was signed by the Tory/Lib Dem Coalition when they were in power.

Said Roger: “It is absolutely right that the people of Birmingham should know the details of this contract, under which the Council pays Capita about £126 million a year to run its IT, call centre and billing services.

“I will be particularly interested to find out how Capita can justify being paid £1.2 million to build the website for the City’s new library and a further £190,000 a year to run it, when Worcester Country Council spent only £10,000 on the website for its new library and centre, and Liverpool City Council disclosed that the costs for its library website were just four hours of staff time to upload new pictures and alter text!”

Posted on 2014-04-08 | 04:42

A campaign to put pressure on Birmingham University to pay all its employees the living wage has been successful. The campaign was supported by Unite the Union and Birmingham Labour MPs, as well as students and staff members at the university.

Roger was among those calling for the university to pay the living wage, and he wrote to the head of the University of Birmingham to support the living wage strike action. The number of the university’s employees who require this increase to get their salary up to the level of a living wage is only a few hundred, and the estimated cost to the university is less than £100,000 per year.

Roger reminded the Vice Chancellor that he receives a salary approaching half a million pounds per year, and highlighted the unfairness of squeezing pay at the bottom while providing lavish increases at the top.

The university was initially extremely resistant to paying the living wage, even though this involved a pay increase to staff of just 20p per hour, or £7 per week, claiming it could not afford to pay staff a decent wage.

Posted on 2014-04-08 | 04:43

Roger joined with local Councillors Mohammed Fazal and Habib Rehman and Sparkbrook Councillor, Victoria Quinn, together with local children to celebrate the news that swimmers in Sparkhill will soon be able to swim in a new Olympic Swimming Pool used during the London 2012 Olympics.

  Thanks to the ongoing campaign by Roger and the Springfield Councillors, together with the support of local people, Sparkhill is going to have one of the nine London 2012 Olympic Training Pools which are to be dismantled and rebuilt in a brand new baths. The new facility will include a 25m six-lane swimming pool, a learner pool and an 80-station fitness suite, dance studio, community room, sauna and steam facilities.

Said Roger: “The people of Sparkhill and the local Councillors have been superb in their campaign to ensure that this replacement baths project went ahead. The previous Tory/Lib Dem Coalition in Birmingham fobbed off local people with vague and uncosted promises but nothing materialised. “The new Labour administration in Birmingham is to be warmly congratulated for honouring our pledge to get new baths for the people of Sparkhill. The facility that is going to be provided will be outstanding, and it is what the people of Sparkhill deserve.”

Posted on 2014-03-24 | 02:16

Every year more than 1 million people die from a disease that many people consider to have already been eradicated. TB is airborne, infectious, drug-resistant and found in every country in the world, yet in the UK people tend to associate it with badgers rather than humans.

This World TB Day, 24th March, parliamentarians from around the world have come together to call for renewed action against the disease. The statement has been signed by over 130 representatives from across the G7 countries and the European Parliament.

Roger, one of more than 30 Labour MPs and Peers to sign the statement, said: “TB has killed more people than any other infectious disease in history, and it still kills 1.3 million people every single year. The only way that we’re going to beat the disease is if we have coordinated, global action.”

Members of the UK House of Commons and House of Lords make up over half of all the politicians who have signed the statement, reflecting the fact that TB remains a significant problem here in the UK. Parts of the country have rates to match those found in some of the worst affected countries in the world, and London has the highest rates of any capital city in Western Europe. Birmingham’s rates are only fractionally lower.

“There is low awareness of what a problem TB really is,” said Roger. “Rates of TB across Birmingham are higher than the World Health Organisation’s definition of a ‘high risk’ area, yet many people probably aren’t aware of what the symptoms are.” Birmingham has the highest number of TB cases of any city in the UK outside of London and is working hard to tackle the disease.

Nonetheless, lack of awareness of the disease is posing a real problem, particularly in the long delays between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis. TB is infectious, so if you don’t get diagnosed and start treatment you can pass it onto other people. Because TB is difficult to diagnose and people aren’t familiar with the symptoms, almost half of all patients wait longer than 3 months before getting diagnosed.

“There is a lot we need to do to tackle the disease, but it all starts with political commitment.” Said Aaron Oxley, Executive Director of RESULTS UK, an NGO that works on TB. “Local MPs can make a fantastic difference, whether that’s advocating for local issues or working together to call for global action as they have done by signing this statement.”

Posted on 2014-03-12 | 01:06

The 17th March is commemorated as St. Patrick’s Day in memory of Patrick the son of Calpurnius, a Roman-British army officer, who was born in the 4th century AD. Having originally being sold into slavery by pirates he escaped and went to Ireland where he spent 20 years travelling throughout the country establishing Monasteries and setting up schools and Churches and winning converts for Christianity.

Although originally a Catholic Holy Day St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a secular holiday which is celebrated by Irish people of all religious faiths as a celebration of the Irish culture. I extend greetings to all my constituents of Irish descent on this happy occasion.

Posted on 2014-02-10 | 04:56

Roger has written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, to protest about the suffering the policy of mandatory reconsideration of ESA claims is already causing in his constituency of Birmingham Hall Green.

Roger wrote to the Minister about the case of one of his constituents, who was told that her ESA was being stopped despite the fact that she suffers from a life-threatening heart condition as well as kidney failure. After her ESA was stopped, she was unable to afford to make the journey from Birmingham to attend her appointments at a London hospital.

Happily, the result of the reconsideration (which took nearly two months) was that the original decision should be overturned, and the constituent’s ESA reinstated. The original Atos assessment awarded her just 6 points, but at the reconsideration she was found to actually qualify for 15 points. Roger has called on the Department for Work and Pensions to investigate how Atos got this assessment so badly wrong, as he is extremely concerned that similar grossly incorrect assessments are being carried out on a wide scale.

Roger is also concerned about DWP’s refusal to set a time limit for how long mandatory reconsideration may take. This means that seriously ill people are left in limbo, with no money with which to buy food or travel to hospital appointments for weeks or even months. This issue has been raised many times by a number of Members of Parliament, but DWP has consistently refused to set itself standards on this.

In his letter to DWP, Roger wrote: “While my constituent’s ESA has now been reinstated, it is not the case that no damage has been done. There is an extra cost to the taxpayer, who had to pay Atos to carry out an assessment which was so incompetent that it had to be redone, again at taxpayer expense. Much more importantly, there is the human cost to my constituent and others like her. She is seriously ill, and has a right to state support because she is too unwell to work. Yet she has been caused an enormous amount of extra stress and worry, as well as having to miss crucial hospital appointments. As she wrote to me, ‘Every day is a struggle but this has made everything that little bit more difficult.’”

Roger concluded his letter to DWP with: “Has a cost-benefit assessment been carried out of the savings to the taxpayer of the mandatory reconsideration policy? I am extremely sceptical about the likelihood that that, after factoring in the cost of the Atos assessment and the mandatory reconsideration, this policy will have saved the taxpayer any money at all. Even if it does, it is at the expense of vulnerable and seriously ill people such as my constituent, whose health can only be made worse by the added stress of having their only source of income snatched away while your Department takes months to overturn a hopelessly flawed Atos assessment.”

Posted on 2014-01-21 | 03:00

Roger has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for an indefinite delay on the introduction of plans known as care.data, which will extract and link large amounts of confidential NHS patient data.

Speaking from Westminster, Roger said: "The NHS wants to extract this data to ‘improve the delivery of healthcare and to benefit researchers inside and outside the NHS', but I have grave reservations about the whole project.

“By rights this programme should have been up and running by now, but the Information Commissioner was so concerned about the project that the start date for the harvesting of patient data was delayed by a year to spring 2014, because of issues relating to the confidentiality of the extracted data, lack of public awareness and the extent of information sharing”.

The whole process begins to undermine the principle of patient confidentiality.

While welcoming the current public awareness campaign by NHS England, Roger believes that these plans are flawed because the whole programme operates on the principle of 'presumed consent'. This means that unless individuals notify doctors that they want to 'opt out' out of the whole process, the NHS takes the default position that individuals have consented to their data being taken and used.

“I believe that the whole process begins to undermine fundamentally the long established principle of patient confidentiality, and is a recipe for confusion”, he said. “The NHS just seems to think patronisingly that all it needs to do is to throw in health-speak phrases such as ‘improve delivery’, ‘for the benefit of the service’ and ‘in the public interest’, and people will just roll over and allow their data to be taken because it’s for their own good!”

He continued: “I have absolutely no faith in assertions by Government that patient data will be coded in such a way as to guarantee anonymity, particularly as the NHS will reserve to itself the right in ‘the public interest and for the benefit of the health service’ to allow access to identifiable data. There is also the Government's record as a whole on data management or rather, chronic mismanagement and leakages. I believe that patients themselves, not NHS England, should determine when and where their own medical information is used and for what purposes”.

"This is just another worrying example of Government encroaching on confidential personal data"

Roger continued: "It has been one of the blackest years on record for the NHS. The current, deep-seated issues of health mismanagement, accompanied by chronic lack of oversight and corrosive levels of secrecy, have led directly to patient deaths, as the Mid-Staffs NHS Trust saga proved. I find it very difficult to understand why the Government should insist on introducing a measure such as this at a time when it already has its hands full dealing with current problems”.

He concluded: “I believe that the Government should first sort out the problems that face it immediately before even contemplating introducing a new system such as care.data.

“I'm sure that many commercial companies which want to bid for lucrative NHS contracts would relish the prospect of being able to access this kind of data in any form, anonymous or otherwise, in developing a bid for such work. However, at the moment it is just another worrying example of Government encroaching on confidential, personal data, seemingly oblivious to the consequences for individual citizens.”

You can read the Parliamentary Questions Roger asked the Government on care.data last week here.

Posted on 2014-01-13 | 04:36

Roger has written to Esther McVey MP at the Department for Work and Pensions to call for an investigation into whether its sub-contractors, including ATOS, are charging the taxpayer for services that do not actually exist.

Roger was alerted to this situation by a constituent who wrote to him because she had received a letter from ATOS on behalf of DWP, asking that she attend an appointment in relation to her benefit claim. She also received a letter from Ingeus, a company which runs the Work Programme, saying that she had been a participant on the programme for two years. However, she had not claimed Employment and Support Allowance for a year and a half and had no current claim, and had never been on the Work Programme or claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance.

"DWP must now investigate this matter fully, and ensure that payments are not being made for non-existent services."

Roger wrote to DWP to ask them to investigate this case and the possibility that further taxpayer-funded payments are being made to companies to provide fictitious appointments and non-existent courses. He commented: “It is worrying, although regretfully not particularly surprising, that companies such as ATOS are billing the taxpayer for services which have not actually been provided.

“It’s bad enough to waste taxpayer money on incompetent or unfair ATOS assessments, but ridiculous to waste resources on assessments for claims which do not actually exist. Similarly, the Work Programme’s results have been poor even for jobseekers who have actually attended their courses. I do not see why the taxpayer should also be billed for people who have never been on the programme or received any assistance.

“Whether the product of deliberate fraud or just incompetence, DWP must now investigate this matter fully, and ensure that payments are not being made for non-existent services. I would also like a guarantee from the Government that any payments wrongly made to companies such as ATOS will be clawed back, as they are from individuals who have received benefits overpayments.”

Posted on 2014-01-10 | 11:36

Roger has tabled a Written Parliamentary Question to ask the Department for Work and Pensions how many people in his constituency have been affected by the latest bout of Coalition incompetence on benefits.

The Government’s failure to introduce full retrospective legislation when bringing in the bedroom tax left a legal loophole which makes a number of tenants exempt from this charge. Social housing tenants who have been living at the same address and claiming housing benefit continuously since 1 January 1996 were not legally obliged to pay the bedroom tax and should not have been charged.

"This reimbursement will not compensate people for the stress and worry inflicted by this policy, or return people to homes they were forced to leave."

After tabling the question to DWP, Roger commented: “This is extremely embarrassing for the Government. How can people trust them to run the country if they can’t even legislate correctly to introduce their own policies? Yet for once the effects of Coalition incompetence will be positive, with thousands of people being repaid their bedroom tax payments.”

“However, this is really just a stay of execution. While some people will receive refunds of their bedroom tax payments, a much larger number will not. Those who are exempt are not likely to remain so for long, as the Coalition will soon close the loophole.”

“This reimbursement will not compensate people for the stress and worry inflicted by this policy or return people to homes they were forced to leave. Nor will it prevent further suffering being inflicted on ill, disabled or low-paid people by a Government addicted to cutting their support.”

Councils will not necessarily notify social housing tenants that they may be liable for reimbursement. If you think you might qualify for this exemption and have wrongly been charged, you will need to contact your local housing benefit office to find out. A template letter is available online here.

Posted on 2014-01-08 | 06:27

Roger has written to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to challenge its claim that intellectual property regulations justify withholding the results of TB tests carried out on culled badgers from public scrutiny.

DEFRA refuses to carry out routine TB tests on shot badgers, making it more difficult to assess the “effectiveness” of the badger cull. However, while it refuses to respond to calls by MPs and taxpayers to institute routine testing, it will carry out tests at the request of landowners.

“I find it worrying that the results of an extremely unpopular policy, carried out at public expense but without any approval from the taxpayer, are being withheld from the public and from proper public scrutiny."

Roger tabled a Parliamentary Question to ask for the results of these tests, but was told by George Eustice MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Farming, Food and Marine Environment, that these results are being withheld under regulation 12(5)(c), which protects intellectual property.

Roger wrote to DEFRA to express his concern that this section of the intellectual property regulations, which are supposed to protect the creators of works of art, is being applied to dead badgers. He requested an internal review and a full explanation of the reasoning behind DEFRA’s decision that tests on culled badgers fall under IP protection.

Roger said: “I find it worrying that the results of an extremely unpopular policy, carried out at public expense but without any approval from the taxpayer, are being withheld from the public and from proper public scrutiny. It is a stretch of credibility that landowners can hold intellectual property rights in dead badgers, and I would like DEFRA to justify this decision.”

Roger demanded an explanation from DEFRA on a number of issues, including how the results of post-mortems carried out on animals at taxpayer expense fall under IP regulations. Roger also asked DEFRA to explain why it decided that the public interest in withholding the results outweighed the public interest in disclosure, and reminded Mr Eustice that the same regulations state that a public body will apply a presumption in favour of the disclosure of information.

You can read Roger’s question to DEFRA and the response here, and Roger’s letter to DEFRA here.

Posted on 2014-01-02 | 08:42

Roger was among a small group of MPs who voted against approving the draft European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Colombia and Peru Trade Agreement) Order 2013. Sixty-one MPs chose to vote against accepting this free-trade agreement with Colombia in protest against the country’s failure to honour its commitments on human rights.

Roger explained the reason for his “no” vote: “Once again, this Government have put economic interests above human rights. In just one year, 37 human rights activists were murdered in Colombia, sixteen of whom were murdered by Government forces during strike action. The free trade agreement sets out standards for human rights protection, but I am concerned that this is just empty rhetoric that will not be enforced. This House should not condone the murder of innocent people by their own Government.”

The trade agreement was passed by the House, but Roger and his colleagues who voted against it felt that it was important to make a stand against human rights abuses, wherever in the world they take place.