SPECTATOR /HIGHLAND PARK AWARDS
Parliamentarian of the year the winners
The seventh annual presentation of the Spectator/Highland Park Parliamentarian of the Year Awards took place on Wednes- day 28 November. The awards were pre- sented by Michael Foot, the guest of honour, at a luncheon in the Savoy Hotel. The guests were welcomed by Mr Alick Sherriff on behalf of Highland Distilleries, and by Mr Algy Cluff, Chairman of The Spectator.
The Chairman of the judges, Dominic Lawson, the editor of The Spectator, read out the judges' remarks and citations:
`Until the end of the year, British politics was taking second place to foreign events even on the front pages of British newspap- ers. At their first meeting at the end of October a number of the judges expressed the view that it had been a dull parliamen- tary year. That seems a long time ago and one at least of these awards reflects the turbulent events of the past few weeks. `The benches of Parliament are designed for face-to-face combat. This year, howev- er, it seems that the Conservative Govern- ment has taken its heaviest blows from behind, giving an interesting and perhaps reliable lesson in British party politics to the television audience watching Parlia- ment this year for the first time. `Member to Watch: Mr Brian Wilson MP for Cunninghame North. Mr Wilson is a fine example of the young, intelligent, undoctrinaire yet indisputably radical Labour members who have emerged from Scotland to impress the Commons in re- cent years. We have already in past awards here honoured Mr John Smith and Mr Gordon Brown. Mr Wilson's crafty alliance with right-wing Tories against the Scottish Law Reform Bill seems to have assisted in the implosion at the top of the Scottish Conservative Party. He is also a member of the Unopposed Bills Commit- tee and is thought to be the first such member to cause an unopposed Bill to be rejected and sent back to the House.
`Backbencher of the Year: Mr Anthony Berm, MP for Chesterfield. The judges have chosen Mr Benn for consistent per- formance over a number of years, and not just for his notable contributions to the recent Parliament. He remains the most effective questioner of excessive zeal on the part of the executive, and a staunch defender of the rights of the legislature, for example in his contribution to the debates on the Gulf crisis. When he challenged the Speaker's ruling in the Zircon affair some years ago, the Speaker advised all students of Parliament to read his speech as an example of what a backbencher could achieve. The judges hope that he will have the opportunity to visit the Iraqi parlia- ment on his Baghdad venture and warn them too of the dangers of an uncontrolled executive. His award was accepted on his behalf by Mr Tony Banks MP.
`Party Leader of the Year: Mr Paddy Ashdown, MP for Yeovil. This has been an eventful year for party leaders. The task of keeping a party united on an agreed set of policies is seldom easy. This leader in addition has had to stand up against a formidable opponent from a position which might be described as inherently one of weakness. But he has brought a new vigour and conciseness to his task at Prime Minister's questions and has on some occasions enabled his party to express a note of genuine moral authority, notable in the debate on Hong Kong. He was laughingly castigated by another leader as a dead parrot. However, in his case the parrot seems to have outlived the shop- keeper.
`Campaigner of the Year: Miss Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood. Campaigner of the Year was the title we chose to lend a little pomp and circumst- ance to a familiar quality — but one greatly to be prized at Westminster: the quality of sticking to your guns. This MP has held with deep and at times emotional tenacity to a view of the Irish problem with which the vast majority would differ; but nobody can doubt her courage in an unpopular cause. She has endured unending ribaldry both from fellow MPs and from the tabloid press because of her opposition to 'page 3'-style photographs in newspapers. But inside and outside the Chamber, Clare Short has also attracted respect and affec- tion from MPs to whom her causes are before not work.' to phone me at anathema. Like so many women, she is not by instinct a team player. She is her own woman: and her party, and Parliament, are the richer for it.
`Speech of the Year: Sir Geoffrey Howe, MP for Surrey East. This was a most controversial award, with at least one of the judges giving the opinion that while its effects were devastating, the speech was not intrinsically a good one. The judges did not previously consider this member as a Commons speaker whom they would leave their drinks at the bar to hear. His reputa- tion was as a capable work-horse, the man, for example, who almost single-handedly put through the legislation of the European Communities Act 1972. When he stood up in the House just over a fortnight ago members were expecting a routine resigna- tion speech expanding on the usual res- ignation letter, and expressing good wishes for the Prime Minister's future. But his speech proved to be even more savage than that of another ex-Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, which won a similar award last year. As sentence followed sentence, it was clear that this was a death sentence for the Prime Minister. The gasps — mostly on his own side of the House — grew louder and louder. There was characteristic lack of flamboyance or oratory; he read his notes in a manner, according to one of our judges, of a man shielding them from the rain. Then the storm broke.
`Parliamentarian of the Year: Mr Doug- las Hurd, MP for Witney. Mr Hurd came relatively late in life to the office for which he had always prepared himself, and as such he has displayed an ease and confi- dence at the despatch box which he had never quite managed in his previous jobs. His Commons performances have been characterised by a courtesy and regard for the Opposition's opinions redolent of a more generous and spacious age. He rarely attributes low motives to those who dis- agree: he takes points and makes points without ever reducing himself to mere political point-scoring. As one of the judges remarked, he displays the par- liamentary equivalent of the bedside man- ner in the days when doctors actually called on their patients. The judges commiserate with Mr Hurd on the result of the Con- servative leadership election, but look forward to his continued mastery of his brief at the despatch box.'
The judges were: Noel Malcolm of The Spectator, Alan Watkins of the Observer, Colin Welch of the Daily Mail, Ian Aitken of the Guardian, Matthew Parris of the Times and Donald Macintyre of the Inde- pendent on Sunday. They wish, as in previous years, to emphasise that they do not claim any superior authority for their awards, and offer them only in affection and respect for the Houses of Parliament.
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