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Saturday 22 November 2008

The winners of the political year

This is the text of the remarks that Matthew d’Ancona, editor of The Spectator, delivered at the Spectator Threadneedle Parliamentarian of the Year awards lunch at Claridge’s Hotel.

Ladies and gentlemen: please join me in welcoming the Rt Hon John Reid MP.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

The 2005 intake was a strong one, and already a disproportionate number of the 119 men and women elected to Parliament for the first time two years ago are making their mark across the political spectrum.

But some in the kindergarten of pain are doing better than others, and none more so than our winner.

Gruff of voice, but kind of heart, he is the pin-up of his party and the dartboard of choice at Conservative party headquarters, where they rightly see him as a serious threat.

A former journalist, Eurocrat, and MEP, he has achieved ascendancy in the parliamentary ranks of his party with prodigious speed. There were those who thought he should have stood for the leadership in the last contest, but – wise man that he is – he knew there’d be another one along in a minute, and he is now the runaway favourite to succeed Ming Campbell.

The judges were unanimous in choosing him, and in their view that this award might damage his chances of becoming Lib Dem leader. They divided only on whether this was a good things – the Tories on the panel thinking that anything that kept him out of the hot seat must be a good thing.

So it is with pleasure and a measure of apology that I announce this year’s newcomer of the year: Nick Clegg.

INQUISITOR OF THE YEAR

This award is given to the MP or peer who has best deployed the mechanisms of parliamentary procedure to get to the truth, smash spin and shine the pure light of democracy – oh yes – into the darkest recesses of government and policy.

This year’s winner is a backbencher of the sort who rarely features in the headlines but form the backbone of our parliamentary system.

He has been chairman of his committee since 1998 but it was only this year that he stormed to prominence with a devastating forensic critique of the EU Reform Treaty.

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