Why Harman won

Harriet Harman as the Spectator/Threadneedle parliamentarian of the year? When the judging panel started our deliberations, we had no idea we’d end up giving the top laurels to Harperson and Mandelson. Well, Mandelson as politician of the year was a no-brainer: you don’t need an explanation. He just is. He took over a government single-handedly. But Harman? I bow to no one (except Rod Liddle) in my hostility to her equalities agenda. But her critics must admit that a) she actually has an agenda, unlike so many of her colleagues b) she advances her agenda powerfully, as she did every day with her displays of political pyrotechnics when she stood in for Gordon Brown and c) she has moulded her agenda into legislation in the form of the Equalities Bill. It’s the last part which really clinched it for her.

Darling was awarded “survivor of the year” because recessions normally destroy Chancellors – but his reputation has, weirdly, grown.