HIGHLAND PARK/SPECTATOR AWARDS
Parliamentarian of the year: the winners
THE 16th annual Highland Park/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, spon- sored by Highland Park Single Malt Scotch Whisky and The Spectator, were presented by Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary, the guest of honour at the awards presentation lun- cheon held at the Savoy Hotel, London. The guests were welcomed by David Maxwell Scott, director of Highland Distillers. The chairman of the judges, Boris Johnson, edi- tor of The Spectator, read out the judges' choices and the reasons for them.
Parliamentarian of the Year: The Rt Hon. John Major, CH, MP IN the unanimous opinion of the judges, this year's winner has distinguished the House of Commons by his mere presence, as well as by the sagacity of his speeches. He has a burgeoning literary career, out- selling one former colleague's memoirs by a factor of 140 to one. He is in hot demand on the American lecture circuit and at cricketing dinners, and yet he has found time to give the House the benefit of his wisdom, notably over Ireland. In this respect he differs from some of his pre- decessors who have, following their ejec- tion from high office, been notable in their absence. Those of us who were privileged to serve under his banner in the great, if disastrous, campaign of 1997 will remember his rallying cry: 'We've got our backs to the wall. Now's the time to turn round and fight', words that today's Tory party will no doubt be brooding on in this difficult week. He is, as ever, more popular than the party he led, and, in the view of the judges, deservedly so.
Peer of the Year: The Rt Hon. the Viscount Cranborne, DL THE judges were bitterly divided over this award, with some of them contend- ing that the winner was a mere poodle to the government. His defenders point- ed out that he was, in fact, a self-con- fessed spaniel, and an ill-trained one too, and that, anyway, The Spectator ought to pay tribute to a man who had, in the dying days of the 20th century, used a shooting metaphor in a serious political context. Five centuries ago this man's ancestor was mere- ly an ambitious Welsh lawyer, the Geoffrey Howe of his age. By dint of unremitting toil and machination, the family has played a key role in British public life ever since. It is the winner's crowning achievement that he has ensured that 92 other hereditary peers will survive in the legislature. He may not have saved all of them, but he saved some of them. He is the Oskar Schindler of the Upper House. Survivor of the Year: The Rt Hon. Michael Meacher, MP THE winner this year has once again proved his ability to rise above his natural disadvantages. Having been educated at Berkhamsted and New College, Oxford, he made his name as a left-winger and, having become Tony Bean's vicar on earth, he has somehow managed to survive as an envi- ronment minister under New Labour. Among the duties of the former Bennite have been: to stick up for the American gene-tamperers, Monsanto; to explain New Labour's relationships with the super- market barons; and to explain to owners of second homes why they are a bad thing, a subject on which he is well qualified to speak since he has three homes himself. Perhaps because he was once involved in a protracted libel action with one of the judges, or perhaps because his instincts for survival so instruct him, the winner has decided he cannot be with us today.
Inquisitor of the Year The Hon. Mrs gwyneth Dunwoody, MP
THE winner has been a trenchant and powerful critic of the government's trans- port policy. The report of the Transport Select Committee, which she chairs, was widely seen as the moment when, so to speak, the wheels came off for John Prescott. She has also been admired for the cogency of her attack on the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia.
Campaigners of the Year The Rt Hon. the Lord Ashley of Stoke, CH; The Lord Rix, CBE, DL IN his days on the stage, Lord Rix used to drop his trousers amid tumultuous applause, and with the same impeccable timing he has made it his business to debag the govern- ment, lately, in that long-running Whitehall farce, the Welfare Reform Bill. Lord Ash- ley, whose sense of hearing has been provi- dentially restored to him since leaving the green benches of the Commons, has like- wise been a formidable foe of the govern- ment. They prove that life peers, as much as hereditaries, are capable of thought and action independent of the party whips.
Minister to Watch: The Rt Hon. Paul Murphy, MP IT was said that the secret of Mo Mowlam's success as secretary of state for Northern Ireland was her willingness to throw her arms around people on all sides of the conflict and hug them. Per- haps the reason things have not totally collapsed over there is that there was always someone to comfort those whom Mo had hugged. This year's winner has been widely admired for the way he has gone to the Unionists and persuaded them to look on the bright side.
Backbencher of the Year Tam Dalyell, MP THE political world owes to this winner the formulation of the West Lothian Question, which is one of those ques- tions, like the proof of Fermat's last theorem or the real identity of Lord Archer's dinner companions 13 years ago, that has everyone stumped. This has not deterred our award-winner from pos- ing the Question again. He is to be partic- ularly congratulated, in the opinion of the judges, for securing a debate, and a vote, on the government's policy over Kosovo.
The judges were: Bruce Anderson of The Spectator, Michael Brunson of ITN, Elinor Goodman of Channel 4 News, Simon Hog- gart of the Guardian, Frank Johnson, for- mer editor of The Spectator, George Jones of the Daily Telegraph, Robin Oakley of the BBC, Matthew Parris of the Times, Alan Watkins of the Independent on Sun- day and Michael White of the Guardian.
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