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The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards

Wednesday, 1st October 2008

Your nominations for the Readers' Representative award

Nominations for the inaugural Spectator’s Readers’ Representative award are now open. The entries received so far show that there are at least some elected officials who have earned both the trust and respect of their constituents.

Oliver Mitchell puts forward Dr Julian Lewis, part of the shadow defence team. Mitchell, 19, met Lewis at the Festival for Heroes event and was touched by the interest that Lewis took in him. Mitchell concedes that his view is biased but says ‘were more MPs able to make so positive an impression in one chance meeting, the faith in politicians of the public and armed forces might be restored’.

Gary Powell nominates Anne Milton, the MP for Guildford. Mr Powell is campaigning against the pro-council bias of the Local Government Ombudsman and has been heartened by Milton’s willingness to listen to those with complaints about the process. Powell writes: ‘My faith in the possibility of some politicians being decent and principled was restored when I heard about Anne Milton’s support of a constituent who had presented her with a complaint about appalling and heartbreaking injustice at the hands of his council and then the Local Government Ombundsman.’

Others nominated so far include Tom Harris, the rail minister, for his blog, Vince Cable for his economic acumen, and Michael Gove for his fresh thinking. Our former editor also has his champions. Onnalee Cubitt sums up the feeling behind many entries when she writes that Boris ‘is the antithesis of the grey suit brigade and for that we applaud and revere him’.

All you have to do to put someone forward for the award is go to www.spectator.co.uk/parliamentarian and in no more than 250 words nominate your choice. Terms and conditions can be found on the website. Closing date for entries is Monday 27 October 2008, 5 p.m.

www.threadneedle.co.uk

A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

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‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.