Conservative Movement Awards 2007/08

This time last year ConservativeHome held its inaugural Conservative Movement Awards evening. It was a very enjoyable occasion and we hope to build on it with this year's (2007/08) awards.

We have a dozen awards this year, some of which are different from last year's (who really wants to get an Unlikely Ally award?), and will roll out one nomination each day, starting at noon:

1. Lifetime Achievement
2. Outstanding Politician
3. Best Book
4. Best Writer
5. One To Watch
6. Innovative Policy
7. National Campaign
8. Next Generation
9. Culture Warrior
10. New Media
11. Local Hero
12. Internationalist

Please leave a comment on the respective post or email us with something like this:

Nomination: ConservativeHome.com

Citation: For providing an insightful daily commentary on the Conservative Party's personalities, tactics and strategy and for reminding conservatives that conservatism is bigger than the Tory party.

For obvious reasons you can't nominate us for anything. We're also restricting the awards to domestic nominees.

Once you've had time to nominate winners for each category, a panel comprised of the ConservativeHome Editors, and some distinguished others (TBA), will draw up shortlists of three and the shortlists will be put to an online vote. We will then announce the winners at a get-together in Westminster (sorry, northerners!). Date still to be confirmed but it will be early in the new year.

Last year's shortlists and winners have been copied below...

SHORTLISTS

BEST WRITING AWARD

• Mark Steyn (for mercilessly and accurately exposing liberal pretensions)   
• Matthew Parris (for humour and intelligence every Saturday)
• The editorial in Sunday's Business newspaper (as a weekly primer in conservatism)

OUTSTANDING PARLIAMENTARIAN AWARD

• Richard Bacon MP (for helping to uncover Labour's prisoner releases scandal)   
• Nick Bourne AM (for coordinating defeats of Welsh Labour in the Cardiff Assembly)   
• Roger Helmer MEP (for exposing corruption in Brussels)

‘ONE TO WATCH’ AWARD

• The Cornerstone Group (for representing the Tory Party's Eurosceptics and social conservatives)   
• The Direct Democracy group and its localisation agenda
• The Taxpayers Alliance (for putting the case for lower taxation on the national agenda)

UNLIKELY ALLY AWARD   

• Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris (for his opposition to extreme animal ‘rights’ campaigners)
• SNP MP Angus MacNeil (for bringing the loans-for-peerages scandal to the attention of Scotland Yard)
• Frank Field MP (for his work on pensions, welfare and immigration)

BEST CAMPAIGN

• The Taxpayers Alliance (for putting the case for lower taxation on the national agenda)
• MigrationWatch (for highlighting the problem of immigration)
• The David Cameron leadership campaign (for making an outsider candidate the Tory leader)

NEW TECHNOLOGY AWARD

• ToryRadio (for its regular interviews of leading Conservative politicians)   
• Grant Shapps MP (for getting 10,000 of his constituents on email)
• Canada's conservative bloggers (for exposing the corruption of the ruling Liberal Party)

TAXCUTTER AWARD

• George W Bush (for cutting US taxation and powering the world economy)
• Ivan Miklos, Slovakian Minister of Finance (for introducing an economy-boosting flat tax)
• Wandsworth Council (for producing Britain's lowest council tax for fourteen consecutive years)

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

• David Cameron (for putting environmentalism at the heart of the Conservative Party)
• Ruth Lea, Bjorn Lomborg and other climate change sceptics
• Prince Charles (for his support for organic farming and traditional architecture)

PATRIOT AWARD

• British troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq - for their courage and sense of duty
• Liam Fox (for first proposing that Tory MEPs leave the EPP)
• Philip Davies MP and the Tory backbenchers who want Britain to leave the EU

SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD

• John Bercow (for championing the human rights of people in Burma and Darfur)
• Frank Field (for championing welfare reform)
• Iain Duncan Smith (for establishing the Centre for Social Justice

WINNERS

NEW TECHNOLOGY: GRANT SHAPPS MP
"For innovative use of email and internet campaigning to build broad and deep links with constituents."

ONE TO WATCH: THE TAXPAYERS' ALLIANCE
"For championing the beleagured taxpayer at a time when all mainstream political parties are failing to offer significant relief from Britain's record tax burden."

OUTSTANDING PARLIAMENTARIAN: RICHARD BACON MP
"For leading the exposure of Charles Clarke's prisoner release scandal and fashioning the news event that has come to define Labour incompetence."

BEST CAMPAIGN: GEORGE OSBORNE MP
"The victorious campaign to elect David Cameron as Tory leader, chaired by George Osborne, succeeded because of its contagious optimism, its clarity and consistency of message, and its dramatic employment of broadcast and new media."

ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPION: RT HON DAVID CAMERON MP
"For using his leadership of the Conservative Party to put the health of the natural environment at the top of Britain's political agenda."

BEST WRITING: MATTHEW PARRIS
"For consistently using his must-read Times column to produce the most insightful writing within British journalism."

Matthew receives his award (right) from Karen Bradley, PPC for Staffordshire Moorlands.  The Times' columnist took off his jacket and showed a shirt with holes in it.  He reported that it was an old shirt of Alan Duncan's that some rats had nibbled!  He went on to compare ConservativeHome to a wasp but said: "At least it's our wasp".

TAXCUTTER: WANDSWORTH'S CONSERVATIVES
"For delivering a consistently low tax burden at the same time as innovative and high quality local services."

SOCIAL JUSTICE: RT HON IAIN DUNCAN SMITH MP
"For using his leadership of the Conservative Party to champion Britain's hardest-pressed communities and to have become the thought leader of Britain's compassionate conservatives."

Awards were also given to Frank Field MP for 'Independent Spirit' and the 'Patriot' Award was given to British troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

BEST WRITING AWARD

• Mark Steyn (for mercilessly and accurately exposing liberal pretensions)   
• Matthew Parris (for humour and intelligence every Saturday)
• The editorial in Sunday's Business newspaper (as a weekly primer in conservatism)

OUTSTANDING PARLIAMENTARIAN AWARD

• Richard Bacon MP (for helping to uncover Labour's prisoner releases scandal)   
• Nick Bourne AM (for coordinating defeats of Welsh Labour in the Cardiff Assembly)   
• Roger Helmer MEP (for exposing corruption in Brussels)

‘ONE TO WATCH’ AWARD

• The Cornerstone Group (for representing the Tory Party's Eurosceptics and social conservatives)   
• The Direct Democracy group and its localisation agenda
• The Taxpayers Alliance (for putting the case for lower taxation on the national agenda)

UNLIKELY ALLY AWARD   

• Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris (for his opposition to extreme animal ‘rights’ campaigners)
• SNP MP Angus MacNeil (for bringing the loans-for-peerages scandal to the attention of Scotland Yard)
• Frank Field MP (for his work on pensions, welfare and immigration)

BEST CAMPAIGN

• The Taxpayers Alliance (for putting the case for lower taxation on the national agenda)
• MigrationWatch (for highlighting the problem of immigration)
• The David Cameron leadership campaign (for making an outsider candidate the Tory leader)

NEW TECHNOLOGY AWARD

• ToryRadio (for its regular interviews of leading Conservative politicians)   
• Grant Shapps MP (for getting 10,000 of his constituents on email)
• Canada's conservative bloggers (for exposing the corruption of the ruling Liberal Party)

TAXCUTTER AWARD

• George W Bush (for cutting US taxation and powering the world economy)
• Ivan Miklos, Slovakian Minister of Finance (for introducing an economy-boosting flat tax)
• Wandsworth Council (for producing Britain's lowest council tax for fourteen consecutive years)

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

• David Cameron (for putting environmentalism at the heart of the Conservative Party)
• Ruth Lea, Bjorn Lomborg and other climate change sceptics
• Prince Charles (for his support for organic farming and traditional architecture)

PATRIOT AWARD

• British troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq - for their courage and sense of duty
• Liam Fox (for first proposing that Tory MEPs leave the EPP)
• Philip Davies MP and the Tory backbenchers who want Britain to leave the EU

SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD

• John Bercow (for championing the human rights of people in Burma and Darfur)
• Frank Field (for championing welfare reform)
• Iain Duncan Smith (for establishing the Centre for Social Justice

WINNERS

NEW TECHNOLOGY: GRANT SHAPPS MP
"For innovative use of email and internet campaigning to build broad and deep links with constituents."

Comments

[Geoff]

It is a shame (although completely understandable) that you are limiting the awards to domestic candidates, as I would have nominated Chief Minister Peter Caruana of Gibraltar for either the "Internationalist" or "Outstanding Politician" category.

There can't be many politicians who secure re-election taking them into their 11th year in office on a robust domestic agenda whilst also defending their territory successfully against a hostile EU nation who wish to occupy us.

[Giles Bointon]

I would like to nominate Nadine dorries as outstanding parliamentarian of the year. She has become high profile and justifyably so.
her work on lowering the abortion limit from 24 to 20 weeks was remarkable. She was able to identify vested interests at work against the bill and issued a minority report.
Her blog is informative and funny and has a huge following. She is everywhere and is tireless. not bad for a working class girl from Liverpool in her first Parliament