HIGHLAND PARK SPECTATOR AWARDS
Parliamentarian of the year: the winners
THE THIRTEENTH annual Highland Park/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards took place on Wednesday. The awards were presented by the Rt Hon. Mr Michael Heseltine, First Secretary of State, and Deputy Prime Minister, guest of hon- our, at a lunch generously provided by Matthew Gloag and Son Ltd, distributors of Highland Park whisky, at the Savoy Hotel, London. The guests were welcomed by Mr Brian Ivory on behalf of Matthew Gloag and Son Ltd. The chairman of the judges, Mr Frank Johnson, editor of The Spectator, read out the judges' remarks and citations.
Parliamentarian of the Year Mr Michael Forsyth, MP for Stirling, Secretary of State for Scotland.
'His is a tale of two front-benchers. A year or so ago, one of them was, and still is, a formidable figure of his country's Estab- lishment. His party appeared to be going with the grain of national feeling. His opponent — our Parliamentarian of the Year — could easily be depicted as a callow youth with no following in the country. But over the last year, their fortunes have been reversed. The formidable figure, Mr George Robertson, shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, whose party is the party of government in Scotland and has a parlia- mentary majority in that country, has suf- fered a series of reverses. He has seen the devolution policy, for which he is responsi- ble, changed, and changed back again. His party was made to look as if it had pan- icked in the face of the phrase invented by the Parliamentarian of the Year — the "Tartan Tax".'
Debater of the Year: Mr Robin Cook, MP for Livingston, shadow Foreign Secretary.
'The Debater of the Year has also in the past been Parliamentarian of the Year. It is generally agreed that he would be a strong candidate for Debater of the Year in any year. His feat this year was to be locked in a small room with a big report. He escaped with the report grasped, and a party line intact. His opponent, Mr Ian Lang, Presi- dent of the Board of Trade, made a good speech in defence of a difficult case. So our Debater of the Year's speech was all the more impressive for his opponent's speech being by no means negligible.'
Minister of the Year: Miss Ann Widde- combe, MP for Maidstone, Minister of State at the Home Office.
'Our categories change from year to year, and this year we decided on the category of Minister of the Year. Every government needs ministers who are prepared to become unpopular, who are prepared to be the one to remind us that government, like life itself, must sometimes be harsh. Some- times blame must be accepted for the harshness before the harshness can be soft- ened, or blamed on someone else. When I say that an example of this was the matter of the women prisoners who were discov- ered to have been manacled, it will be realised that Minister of the Year is the minister who had to answer to parliament for that, and managed to come out of the experience with her reputation for tena- cious defence intact.'
Member to Watch: Mr Menzies Camp- bell, MP for Fife North East.
'This year's winner could well survive this award. Several possible outcomes of the general election could result in his having a more prominent position in six months' to a year's time. There have been some inter- esting rumours that a Blair government might not be confined to members of the Labour Party or even to New Labour. Such a government might enter the transfer mar- ket. In that case, our Member to Watch would be an obvious signing. Even if that didn't happen, it could be that the Member to Watch's party might need another lead- er. In which case, he is an obvious candi- date. He is the Liberal Member for Fife North East, Mr Menzies Campbell.' Backbenchers of the Year: Mr Julian Brazier, MP for Canterbury, and Mr Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West.
'To qualify, the Member had to be a pro- fessional backbencher, not a front-bencher in waiting, not a toady, not a whips' nark. These restrictions considerably narrowed the field. But two names were noted by the judges as meritoriously incurring the wrath of their respective front benches during the year. In alphabetical order, the first of them probably made more trouble for the Government over the year than any other MP, not excluding the Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a piece of proposed legis- lation receives the attention of this back- bencher, the responsible minister sends for a stiff Highland Park, and for the parlia- mentary draftsman. The first of our Back- benchers of the Year is the Conservative Member for Canterbury, Mr Julian Brazier.
'I hope it is no reflection on his personal freshness when we say the other Back- bencher of the Year is a Labour man who refuses to be sanitised. Unlike so many Labour politicians these days, we don't associate him with the luxury goods ads which are so lucrative a feature of The Spectator. He hasn't an Armani suit to his name. He probably thinks Hermes is a social disease. He has probably incurred more displeasure from Mr Peter Mandel- son than any other Labour member except Mr Prescott.'
Peer of the Year: Lord Russell.
'Peer of the Year! It has the ring of National Heritage about it, or of a seaside edifice qualifying for lottery money. In fact, the recipient sits on the Liberal Democrat benches in the Lords. He is the descendant of one of the two or three greatest Whig families. In fact, if one of his ancestors, as Whig prime minister, had not been such a reformer, and had the history of the last 150 years or so been just a little different, our Peer of the Year might have become a Whig prime minister in the Lords himself. He has the combination of learning and parliamentary skill that marked the great parliamentary Whigs. Our Peer of the Year is a byword for careful, and sometimes deadly, scrutiny of legislation; he is also a distinguished historian of the 17th century.'
The judges of the awards were: Elinor Goodman of ITN, Bruce Anderson of The Spectator, Boris Johnson of the Daily Tele- graph, George Jones of the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hoggart of the Guardian, Matthew Parris of the Times, Alan Watkins of the Independent on Sunday, and Michael White of the Guardian. Geoffrey Parkhouse of the Glasgow Herald would have been a judge, but was unwell.
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