Harry Taylor
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harrytaylor.bsky.social
Harry Taylor
@harrytaylor.bsky.social
Parliamentary Reporter at Press Association. Former news editor at the Times, and reported a bit for the Guardian, Camden New Journal and Ham&High. Own views. Kidderminster Harriers fan.
Great to take part in the annual Christmas quiz at the Sheephaven Bay last night to raise money for the CNJ's hamper fund, an ever-important cause.
December 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...
December 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Majestic snooker from Mark Selby in this UK Championship final. Dug deep to win a great final frame too. One of the game's greats.
December 7, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Jonathan Pearce's commentary on the World Cup draw is dripping with wit. Would give Graham Norton a run for his money in Eurovision.
December 5, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Watching Question Time on immigration from Dover this evening has been fascinating. The audience have been very lukewarm on Zia Yusuf and Reform generally, to say the least.
December 4, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
The single-parent penalty: why do they get such a poor deal on family tickets?
The single-parent penalty: why do they get such a poor deal on family tickets?
Major attractions often don’t take lone-parent families into account in their pricing structures, making days out more expensive
www.theguardian.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
The article explicitly notes WI had had a trans-inclusive policy *since the 1970s*!
December 3, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’
December 2, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
The singing is really not helping my mood as I try to write about this, if anyone wants an indication of how not in the Christmas spirit I am at this stage.
Listening to a choir outside Parliament singing 'Let It Go' while reading Richard Hughes' resignation letter from the OBR is incredibly surreal.
December 1, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Listening to a choir outside Parliament singing 'Let It Go' while reading Richard Hughes' resignation letter from the OBR is incredibly surreal.
December 1, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
Zipcar is shutting down its UK operations, basically the only car club that worked in London. Massive kick to anyone who tries to live in capital without owning a car. Having been a customer for 17 years and used Zipvans to move house repeatedly, this is.... very bad! (Zipcar is owned by Avis)
December 1, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
This story is starting to make me feel I’m going slightly mad - maybe RR overdid the gloom, but the tax rises are paying for a) the welfare U-turns b) the £10bn-plus increase in headroom c) scrapping the two child limit d) bits of other spending eg higher local gov costs 🤷🏻‍♀️
December 1, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
It's part of the electionification of everything, which is why we as a country are failing to have a proper conversation about our actual problems. It's bad for the left *and* the right.
It's such a bizarre framing. Labour MPs think taking 450k kids out of poverty is putting the country first! That's why they wanted it to happen! It's not because they personally benefit.
Headline on The World at One just now:

"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".

Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
November 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
It will be interesting to see how much of the Badenoch response to Reeves' budget will land. The Benefits Street line felt the punchiest, but captures the 'Taxes v Welfare' argument that is being made.
November 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Devolution Bill passes the Commons, with Perran Moon abstaining rather than voting against.
November 25, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
Juries are not perfect.

Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.

But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.

They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Interesting to see the mention of David Lock KC in Health and Social Care questions in the Commons, and that he's advising the NHS on cutting clinical negligence legal costs.

Some will remember Lock as Wyre Forest's only Labour MP, when the A&E at Kidderminster hospital was shut.
November 25, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Labour MP Perran Moon claims devolution bill is ‘blatant discrimination’ against Cornwall and mayoralty with English county would be "unholy alliance"
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Labour MP claims devolution bill is ‘blatant discrimination’ against Cornwall
Perran Moon said the bill could forge an "unholy alliance" between Cornwall and Devon and potentially fuel Cornish nationalism
www.independent.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
Lord Rothermere’s Telegraph takeover strengthens UK media’s rightwing tilt
Lord Rothermere’s Telegraph takeover strengthens UK media’s rightwing tilt
Many fear competition and diversity will be diminished as Daily Mail owner wins race to buy newspaper
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
This, from the Guardian, is Ryanair at its very worst.

It's not good enough for them to insist that they're a low-cost airline and everyone knows the rules, in circumstances like this...

I wonder if legislation is needed?
November 22, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
I sometimes feel like I am going mad.

Owning a £1.5m home is not normal in London or the South East of England.
November 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Government threatened with legal action by SAS association over Troubles reforms
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Government threatened with legal action by SAS association over Troubles reforms
Former Brexit secretary Sir David Davis says lawyers for the SAS Regimental Association have written to the Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn.
www.independent.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
I asked this question because I think whether the government acts to mitigate this possibility is key to whether it can pass this policy
Asked if Keir Starmer believes British people want to "see refugee children pulled out of school and deported after 10 years in this country”, his spokesman says that “what the British public wants and what this government was elected on a mandate to deliver was to secure our borders"
November 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Harry Taylor
Iconic Camden LGBT+ pub The Black Cap gets its name back - reopening Spring 2026
November 17, 2025 at 1:40 PM