The Spectator
The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards 2009
The votes are in, and we now know which parliamentarian has won this year’s Spectator/Threadneedle Readers’ Representative Award.
The votes are in, and we now know which parliamentarian has won this year’s Spectator/Threadneedle Readers’ Representative Award.
The votes are in, and we now know which parliamentarian has won this year’s Spectator/Threadneedle Readers’ Representative Award. Their name will be revealed at the Parliamentarian of the Year Awards lunch But here, first, we can announce which reader’s nomination most caught the judges’ collective eye. So congratulations, Sam Rice, whose impassioned support for Douglas Carswell has earned him a bottle of champagne and two tickets to the lunch at Claridges where the awards are announced.
Here is Sam’s nomination: ‘I would like to nominate Douglas Carswell MP for Parliamentarian of the Year. His dedication and clearheadedness during the expenses scandal have been second to none; his foresight before it — as seen in his policy proposals — uncanny; and his campaign to unseat Speaker Martin unparalleled in its historical and democratic importance. There has been no issue this year of greater consequence for the public interest than the expenses affair. For the recession will pass; a malfunctioning democracy continuing unreformed will not. Given the intransigent self-interestedness of so many of his colleagues, the extent of his individual influence towards reforming our politics is of tremendous historical significance. It is therefore incumbent upon me, upon us all, that we recognise the contribution of a man who is likely to become one of the most influential figures of this parliament. And the next.’
With that, all that remains to be said is ‘Thank you’ to everyone who submitted a nomination for the Readers’ Representative award. At a time when parliament’s authority and standing is at a low ebb, you have demonstrated that there are politicians of worth, and politicians worth celebrating. All is clearly not lost.
Check back at new.spectator.co.uk/parliamentarian on 12 November for the full list of winners, as well as video footage of the awards lunch.