Sadly missed
The sudden death on Boxing Day of David Taylor, the Labour MP for North-West Leicestershire, deprived Parliament of another model backbencher.
He never trailed clouds of glory, and was never talked of as a future minister, not least because he was a charter member of the backbench awkward squad, pretty much from the moment of his election, in 1997, and he manifested his awkwardness in serial abstention.
The splendid calculated he was the 8th most rebellious Labour MP in the current Parliament and documented his combination of leftish and social-conservative rebellion in the House.
He did what backbenchers are supposed to do; he used his own judgement and he was a tireless asker of difficult questions. A glance at his record shows he had put down questions on everything from child smoking, to European law on battery hens to research on tinnitus. Most recently he spoke in support of turning the banks and building societies rescued from the credit crunch into mutual societies...
And he did manage to coin a nice acerbic phase when he congratulated Higher Education Minister Ian Lucas on his "key role within the Empire of Mandelsonia", after Lord Mandelson's Business Department annexed the short-lived Innovation, Universities and Science Department, last year.
Poignantly, he was due to ask the second topical question at justice questions in the House today. I don't know what he intended to ask, but I'm certain it would not have been something like "would my Rt Hon Friend agree he is totally wonderful in every way?"
This parliament has seen the untimely demise of several top-notch backbenchers, including Tory hardman Eric Forth and the formidable Gwyneth Dunwoody. David Taylor will be missed.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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