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James Tapper

@jamestapper.bsky.social
5.4K followers 795 following 413 posts

Journalist at The Observer / observer.co.uk I write about science, health and other things.

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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
This is very confused. 1. If those views are legitimate, then it's legit for Reform UK to propose them - the views don't magically change because the party does. 2. If it's legit to propose them, why is it unacceptable to oppose them? 3. How is opposing them the same as wanting mass deportation?
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Bespoke, broke, woke
Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.s... • 34s
Antipope Clement VII:
lan Dunt

I really, really want to stop agreeing with the pope.

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social • 3m
Henry VIll to Thomas Cranmer, 1532:
lan Dunt

I really, really want to stop agreeing with the pope.

Sam Freedman• @samfr.bs... •3m
Henry VIII - 1534.
lan Dunt

I really, really want to stop agreeing with the pope.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Cass said the MHRA had put “no references” in its letter and had shown no evidence it had consulted paediatricians or endocrinologists who had prescribed drugs or knew about bone health issues.

“I’m not dismissing it out of hand. They may have valid points to make, but they haven’t made them adequately in this letter.

“I have not changed my position an inch since I wrote my report, and yet, suddenly, people from the gender-critical side of the debate seem surprised or discomforted that I'm supporting a trial,” she said.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Case told the Observer she was disappointed by the MHRA’s intervention. “There are no new research findings and the MHRA hasn’t presented any new evidence,” she said. “It feels to me like they are responding to political pressure rather than to science.”
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Slightly larger picture byline than usual today in @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Cutting from The Observer headlined “I’m half the man I used to be. But what if I stop taking the jabs?”Chart showing weight loss with and without Mounjaro
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
It’s bad for the Tories to make false claims about mental health, but it’s also v bad for Reform to suggest being a barrister and serving in senior positions means she can’t possibly have had mental health problems. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Guardian clip: 
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Reform UK has also criticised the Tories for their comment about Suella Braverman's mental health. A Reform source said:
I It's a gross affront to millions of people in this country's; it's also not true.
Whether you like Suella or not, she is a Cambridge-educated barrister who has served in a series of extraordinarily senior positions in this country. It goes without saying that she has never been diagnosd with a mental health condition.
[This briefing] is a testament to the extent to which the Tory party is in real panic mode and is prepared to say anything.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
"I told Bibi [Netanyahu] to stop taking credit for the Dome. It's American."
Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.Sanjeev Bhaskar from the BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me playing the "everything is Indian" dad.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.”
Picture of Mr Bean
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I've seen a few posts snarking about the junk food ad ban because gambling ads are everywhere on TV. That's a reason to restrict gambling ads ofc, rather than wash our hands of restricting junk food commercials. Advertising works. Promoting a product makes more people want it.
A billboard showing a McDonald's billboard
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
And delays mean death. A 20 year old woman from Gaza died in Pisa last week - she was in a “severe state of deterioration”.
Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy in a ‘state of severe physical deterioration’ dies in hospital
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Slightly odd story from the BBC, which “understands” … what was in @theobserveruk.bsky.social yesterday.
A group of between 30 and 50 critically ill and injured Palestinian children will be evacuated from Gaza to the UK for medical treatment in the coming weeks, the BBC understands.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
MSF doctors:
Six children arrived on 6 August at a reconstructive surgery hospital run by MSF, the international medical charity, in the Jordanian capital Amman . Dr Earnest Emetole, deputy clinical director at the hospital, said two of them arrived with “severe acute malnutrition”. They have been put on a high-protein diet so that they can be stabilised.
“When a patient arrives with severe acute malnutrition on top of a war-related injury, our first priority is stabilisation, not surgery,” he said. “Malnutrition severely weakens the immune system, causes anaemia, delays wound healing, and can also affect mental health. Operating immediately in such cases carries very high risks, so we focus first on gradually restoring nutritional status.”
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Children from Gaza who need surgery have been taken to Jordan and Lebanon, but they can’t get surgery because they’re too malnourished to heal afterwards. observer.co.uk/news/interna...
Doctors in Jordan and Lebanon told The Observer they have been forced to postpone treatment for some children because they are too malnourished to recover from surgery.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
But if you have thought about it, you might have noticed that there’s a lot more food being pushed at you at the moment. Surprise surprise, it’s not apples and salads.
Old fashion ad for apples
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
The amount the UK spends on sickness and disability benefits for working age people is much lower than most other comparable countries - see this IFS chart of share of GDP:
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Other points: although rising numbers of people are economically inactive, the UK has more people working than most other OECD nations, as the OBR shows.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
It's a rabbit hole - just don't get into synths otherwise you'll end up selling your vital organs so buy this to play Pop Corn:
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
There will be people saying "oh this is all about refugees" but the rise in UK nationals sleeping rough is up 22%
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
This bit is possibly the best: “Englishness survived … the Romans, the Saxons…” could only be written who has no idea about the history of England.
Quote from Stella Braverman article saying “Englishness has never been static or simple. From the arrival of the Romans to the waves of Saxons, Vikings and Normans, English culture has always absorbed and adapted.”
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Big Bro loves you
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Big Tech is now Big Bro
Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos (with fiancee Lauren Sanchez), Sunder Pichai, Elon Musk at Donald Trump's inauguration.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Clearly “plug further fiscal gaps by raising income tax not spending cuts” means, er, austerity.
Extract from an Observer editorial saying “and the care sector particularly hard. It would have been better, and more equitable, to raise the same amount through income tax. And the extra revenue raised only takes her so far in terms of spending: her plans still rely on limiting the growth in public spending to 1.3% a year for the last three years of the parliament, an unrealistic target. She must plug further fiscal gaps through more tax rises, not spending cuts, and this time income tax and VAT should be within scope.”
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Okay here’s my favourite: HOW much?
Photo of shop front named Madeleine. Peeping out from behind a drape in the shop window is a dog.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
41-ish. I think I got a dance music boost.
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Big growth but 500k daily users isn’t yet a huge amount. www.similarweb.com/blog/wp-cont...
Chart showing Bluesky now has 500,000 daily users in the UK
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James Tapper @jamestapper.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Look at the rise since the pandemic. Look at the impacts on people with disabilities. And look at how more than half of the children in poverty are in families with three or more children. It's not the first time charities like @suttontrust.bsky.social and the Trussell Trust have pointed this out.
The report found a worrying rise in the number of disabled people living in poverty since the pandemic, rising by 1.8 million since 2019-20 to 8.7 million in 2022-23. More than half of all people in severe hardship in the UK (54%) live in a family that includes a disabled person.

Nearly one in 10 of the 16 million people in poverty were in families in full-time work, according to the study, illustrating how record levels of inflation affected those in permanent employment. Almost 5 million of those in poverty were part of a household in full- or part-time work.Chart showing 36% of UK children live in poverty, the highest since records began
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