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The Threadneedle/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards

Wednesday, 21st November 2007

John Hume once said to our winner, ‘If the word “no” were to be removed from the English language, you’d be speechless, wouldn’t you?’ To which he replied, ‘No!’ But on 8 May, the Rev Dr Paisley and Martin McGuinness — a self-confessed former member of the IRA — formed a coalition government together and the man who says ‘no’ became the man who at last said ‘yes’.

CAMPAIGNER OF THE YEAR

Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP

Iain Duncan Smith has come back with a vengeance, pursuing his career-long interest in the alleviation of poverty. His work for the Conservative policy review process on ‘Breakdown Britain’ has attracted plaudits across the political spectrum. Rehabilitated and more influential than ever, Iain Duncan Smith is a parliamentarian of impeccable integrity and guts, who has changed the terms of political trade.

PARLIAMENTARIAN OF THE YEAR

Alex Salmond MP

The Scottish elections in May, which delivered an SNP executive, were not only a kick in the teeth for Gordon Brown in his own backyard, but represented a moment of history in the annals of the Union: a nationalist party established north of the border campaigning for full independence and budgetary control by 2017. Whatever your view on that question, the judges felt it was right to salute the man whose brilliant tactics laid the foundations for an extraordinary victory.

POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR

The Rt Hon George Osborne MP

Rarely, if ever, has a single policy proposal by an opposition politician changed the political weather so spectacularly and so suddenly as the Tories proposal to cut inheritance tax. This was not in the Labour script, and was not compatible with the Gordon 2007 software that had been loaded into the electoral machine. No matter: the figures were clear. Brown backed down, and the election was cancelled in a single, diffident interview with Andrew Marr.

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Amid the financial turmoil, Peter versus George is the key battle

Fraser Nelson

Stand by for a mighty clash between two politicians, says Fraser Nelson. The now infamous dinner between Mandelson and Osborne was a cordial parting for power-brokers of different generations who will fight each other savagely for electoral advantage

Maybe Polanski was right to flee America

P.G. Morgan

P.G. Morgan goes in search of the truth about the great director’s flight from the US courts — and uncovers some uncomfortable truths worthy of a scene in Chinatown

An evening with the Muslim Facebook crew

Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor celebrates an iftar meal with homeless people and his fellow Muslims, a web-generated ‘flashmob’ observing an Islamic tradition of generosity to the needy

Strictly Come Dancing is not the BBC’s core broadcasting

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle — a former editor of the Today programme — says that the Corporation must stop pretending to be democratic if it is to keep the licence fee. Unashamed elitism is the only chance that the Beeb has in the new media world

Only Abba can save the world financial markets

Martin Vander Weyer

Martin Vander Weyer says that the collapse in the markets reflects a loss of confidence that is out of proportion to all reason: a trip to Mamma Mia! is the answer to this hysteria

Welcome to the new austerity era, Mr Cameron

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson says that the Tory leader must not be tempted by a ‘safety first’ strategy at his conference in Birmingham. The global financial crisis has transformed the political context and left an opening for the Conservatives to promise true radicalism and to be proudly bold

How Dave and George can avoid a terrible rift

Andrew Tyrie

Andrew Tyrie says that root-and-branch reform of the Treasury will be needed when Brown is gone, including weekly minuted meetings. Past friendship is not enough

The great debt deceit: how Gordon Brown cooked the nation’s books

Fraser Nelson and Peter Hoskin

Amid global financial turmoil, and on the eve of Labour’s conference, Fraser Nelson and Peter Hoskin reveal the true extent of the nation’s debt — equivalent to £26,100 for each British household — and Brown’s scandalous manipulation of the Private Finance Initiative

Labour’s behaviour reminds me of the blind football at the Paralympics

Rod Liddle

The party’s MPs are fatally conflicted over Gordon Brown’s leadership, says Rod Liddle. Their craven conduct reflects the awkward fact that they overwhelminglychose him in the first place

Brown has exploited immigration to hide from deep problems

Fraser Nelson

The PM’s claim to have created three million British jobs is a grave deceit, says Fraser Nelson. Strip out immigrants from the picture, and Labour has barely dented the problem of British worklessness. Over to you, Mr Cameron