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.

My Lords, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to the 23rd Threadneedle/Spectator Parliamentarian Awards. Yes, once again, this is the big one: the Oscars of Westminster, the Booker Prize of our lawmakers, the Blankety Blank cheque book and pen of the political cosa nostra.

First of all: thank you to Mark Malloch-Brown for lending us his study for the ceremony. Second: if any of you are feeling a little light-headed please don’t panic: this is due not only to fine quality of the wines, but also to the fact that for the first time at these awards we are all floating in cyberspace.

Yes, the Spectator is careering up the information super-bridleway and this ceremony is being vodcast live on new.spectator.co.uk to fans of British politics all over the globe. So, in the spirit of Terry Wogan at Eurovision, let me take this opportunity to scurry down the fibreoptic cable:

Bonjour, Paris Guten Tag, Berlin Hallo, Copenhagen Goddag, Oslo Konnyeje wa, Tokyo  Ashamaa, Mogadishu Ushe Ushe, Nigeria O-si-yo to all you Cherokee bloggers. A big “Dannua” to all those logging on in Micronesia – good luck with the canoes! And “Aksutik” to all our Innuit political fans in the Arctic and elsewhere – sorry about the climate change, guys.

We truly are one global village today, and it is fitting that we have an audience of several billion to look back at what has been, by any standards, a remarkable year in politics. As Tennyson didn’t quite say: The old order changeth yielding place to – even older.

So much to recall: Alistair Darling’s charisma, an indeterminate number of Eds, almost as many Milibands, a ministry of all the talents. We said goodbye to Tony Blair – for most of the year.