Parliamentarian of the Year: the winners
T. he 21st annual Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Threadneedle Investments, were
presented by the Rt Hon. Michael Howard, QC, MP, the guest of honour at the awards presentation luncheon held on Thursday 11 November 2004 at Claridge's hotel, London. The guests were welcomed by Simon Davies. Chief Executive Officer of Threadneedle Investments. Boris Johnson, editor of The Spectator and chairman of the judges, explained the judges' choices.
Backbencher of the Year Vera Baird, QC, MP The award of Backbencher of the Year crowns a year of triumphs for this keen forensic intellect. Not only has she won the admiration of many of her colleagues for her decision to stay on the backbenches and skewer the government on Home Office affairs, but in a metaphor for her success, her dog has just defeated David Blunkett's dog and been named Westminster Dog of the Year, even though it is a blind Bedlington and the newspapers report that it looks as though it has been knitted by her granny.
Speech of the Year Barty Sheerman, MP This year's winner of Speech of the Year has made a fantastic recovery because it was not so long ago that he was given the golden bleeper award for the most obsequious questioner in Parliament, and it is a further tribute to him that his speech was made in the hunting debate when there were some other distinguished performances, not least by those have-a-go heroes, the Serjeant-at-Arms and Sir Patrick Cormack. I have to say that there was strong pressure from the panel to give Sir Patrick a gong, but purists insisted that performing a violent physical arrest on a pro-hunt demonstrator did not constitute a speech, and since the winner had defied the vast majority of his party, and his Prime Minister, and made a splendid speech in favour of liberty, we had no hesitation in giving him the prize.
Peer of the Year Baroness Mat/alien, QC I hope you will not think us obsessive, ladies and gentleman, if I say that the winner of the Peer of the Year category also has something to do with hunting. You will start to guess who I am on about if I say that she is a peeress; she is a Labour peeress; she is a QC who has done a fine job of sticking up for freedom against the chippiness and divisiveness of the government she nominally serves. But the clinching factor in her victory is that one of the sponsors at the judging lunch said that he had once sat behind her in an exam at university, and felt overwhelmed with admiration for her golden tresses. We don't have the tresses today hut we are lucky to have her husband to pick up the award.
Survivor of the Year The RI Hon. John Redwood, MP This year's Survivor of the Year had the Tory conference in an ecstasy of gratitude and admiration when he strode to the rostrum and announced, 'I'm back'. He did not say which planet he had returned from, though this is conventionally identified as Vulcan. He is the man to cut back red tape, and he will not rest until the Windows and Doors regulation of April 2002 and the Animal Hygiene Byproducts regulation are both terminated. Minister to Watch The Rt Hon. Alan Johnson, MP This Minister to Watch is so called because he is not just in charge of our pensions — perhaps the single most difficult issue facing government and the most personally embarrassing one for MPs — but he also steered the top-up fees Bill through the house. The judges were unanimous that his winding-up speech was a model of its kind, persuaded wavcrers, and was all the more powerful for coming from a man without a university education himself. In these dark days we Johnsons must stick together.
Politician of the Year The Rt Hon. Charles Kennedy, MP I have to tell you that it was not easy to award this year's top gong, so we have invented a new category, called Politician of the Year. Some of you may have thought there was something cynical in the LibDem decision to oppose the war in Iraq. But as we watch our TVs today, and see the violence taking place in a country where we intended to bring hope, it is hard to deny that his decision appears on the face of it to have been vindicated.
Parliamentarian of the Year Sir Peter Tapsell, MP All of which left one man still standing in the battle to be Parliamentarian of the Year, one huge and historic figure, perhaps the only man left still to have lapels on his waistcoat. When he rises to speak, it is said that the sketchwriters put down their Biros and pick up tablets and chisels, so slowly and massively does he enunciate his syllables. He speaks so slowly, in fact, that a monk from Iona could take it down as dictation, while simultaneously illuminating the manuscript. And his words hit home. He has the immense distinction of being the only MP with the foresight to ask Mr Blair, before the war, whether he would resign if it were found that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Hansard records that the answer was evasive.
The judges were: George Jones of the Daily Telegraph; Alan Watkins of the Independent on Sunday; Ann Trencman of the Times; Simon Hoggart of the Guardian; Michael White of the Guardian; Frank Johnson of the Daily Telegraph; Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail; Anne McElvoy of the Evening Standard; Peter °borne of The Spectator; Trevor Kavanagh of the Sun.
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