July survey is now live

The July survey of grassroots Tory opinion is now live.  Click here to have your say.

In addition to the regular tracker questions on satisfaction with David Cameron and leading members of the shadow cabinet, panelists get the opportunity to decide which shortlisted individuals and organisations win the Inaugural Conservative Movement Awards.

The shortlists were drawn up by the Editor of ConservativeHome.com after a period of consultation.  The awards will be presented in September - in association with the new internet television station advertised here.

The individuals and organisations shortlisted for an award are listed below:

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)

All survey respondents can choose a 'Don't know / None of these' option for each award category.

The Editor of ConservativeHome will also be presenting Lifetime and International Achievement Awards at the September ceremony.

Comments

[Suzy Gale]

Can we have a best contribution to animal welfare issues category please ?!

Suzy Gale
Conservative Animal Welfare Group

[Editor]

You and Roger would be unopposed winners, though, Suzy. It would be too boring!

[michael john turner]

Vote for Helmer MEP, and bring Kirkhope MEP to his senses. At present the Tory leadership in the EPP in Brussels is totally out of touch with reality and with Conservative roots. They have been contaminated by the "self importance syndrome" upon which the European Parliament thrives.

[John Coles]

I e-mailed Mr Cameron asking that he consider re-instating Roger Helmer, not least in the light of Roger's support for the leader in his leadership campaign.
No answer.

[Gareth]

Hmm. A really balanced set of 'awards' nominations. The 'patriot' award is particularly absurd.

[Richard]

Why is it absurd?

[Andrew Woodman]

I would imagine Gareth believes it is absurd due to the 2 Eurosceptic nominees.

[Gareth]

Comparing the patriotism of British soldiers in Iraq with Philip Davies and/or Liam Fox, is beyond parody.

[Deputy Editor]

Comparing the patriotism of British soldiers in Iraq with Philip Davies and/or Liam Fox, is beyond parody.

There is a gulf between physical sacrifice and sticking your neck out career-wise, but the sentiments are the same. "The people" will decide which of the three merits recognition.

As for the other shortlists, I think they are all very strong contenders and a fair balance of the nominations offered by contributors to this site when this idea was first floated.

I look forward to seeing people at the event!

[Andrew Woodman]

Will it be invitee only Sam, or will us site regulars be able to attend?

[Editor]

All those subscribed to the CH mailing list will get first chance of tickets, Andrew.

[JOHN PRESTON]

The Conservative leadership seems to have got itself into a pathological state of mind about the EU and the EP. All the survey question on 'Europe' are loaded.
Why not publish a list of the actual legislation passed at/by the EP and get us a) to learn what it is and b) to comment as necessary?
Why not do the same for the HC (House of Commons - heard of it?)?
John Preston

[Graeme Archer]

I do query the point of asking questions for which an even vague exposure to this website's responders is sufficient to allow prediction of the answers. I think you pick questions in order to generate anti-leadership headlines in order to maximise exposure in the media for CH. Which is fine.

The question about patriotism is fatuous. Did you even pause to think how it would look? Like, you can weigh up the lives of our servicemen and somehow decide they've exhibited less patriotism than some MP? Right ... just sending for the nurses now ... NURSE! The SCREENS!

Predictions (not to be mistaken for how I voted)
Mark Steyn (massively), Roger Helmer (massively), Cornerstone (massively - and you make me angry here Editors, giving this ridiculous group the oxygen it should be starved of) &c &c

Ruth Lea - great woman but famous more for economics/EU views and who's made one speech about the environment - and Bjorn - who's actually a statistician with a career spent investigating environmental issues - like, yeah, whatever, but the envirosceptics won't have heard of Bjorn so stick him in with the anti EU lady and we'll get a lovely anti-green result that'll make the six o'clock news.

George Bush for "powering the world's economy" - umm... George Bush's massive expansion of public spending is fiscally conservative in which sense, exactly?

Gamma minus.

[Editor]

Graeme: I think you should wait and see what the results are - I think you'll be surprised in some categories if early voting patterns hold up. The shortlists all reflect the comments left on this site, however, when I invited ConservativeHome readers to suggest nominees. In most categories there are quite different nominations so that panel voters have a real choice.

You are right about the Patriot Category shortlist. Another reader emailed me about this early yesterday and they were right to do so. No offence was intended and I can reveal that - quite rightly - British soldiers look set to win that category by a large margin.

[Terry Holbrook]

I am surprised not to find john prescot in theunlikly ally section.

[Vanessa Cole]

Thanks for giving the grafters in the Party the chance to comment on the performance or lack of it of the Shadow Cabinet.

We are ahead in the polls because the Govt is so dire and things look to get worse over the summer with Two Jags in charge, not because we have been hammering them in Parliament or anywhere else for that matter.

When the Shadow Cabinet return from their long holiday could they please attack, attack, and attack! Oh, and has our Housing Spokeman gone to sleep? How about taking dozy Yvette Cooper on about the pathetic amount given to London Authorities in response to the hammering she was given by Shelter about the over-crowding issues.

[Jonathan]

You really should reconsider Grant Shapps' achievement of getting 10,000 people onto his mailing list because I emailed him once and he must have added me to his mailing list without my permission because now I get unsolicited mails off him on a regular basis.

[James Hellyer]

Ruth Lea - great woman but famous more for economics/EU views and who's made one speech about the environment...

Ruth Lea has also written several artlicles on environmental issues, and they seized people's attention precisely because of her position with the IoD. In other words, her views on the subject were listened to because of their source.

...the envirosceptics won't have heard of Bjorn so stick him in with the anti EU lady and we'll get a lovely anti-green result that'll make the six o'clock news.

I've heard of Bjorn, as have many others. He has often been cited by the ASI and Heritage Institute, for example, and so is hardly an unknown in conservative circles.

It's telling though that you bracket both of them as "anti-green", when both have a clear environmental agenda, it's just that it's different from that pedalled by the CO2 brigade...

George Bush for "powering the world's economy" - umm... George Bush's massive expansion of public spending is fiscally conservative in which sense, exactly?

I think the point isn't his fiscal conservatism, or obvious lack thereof, but rather his tax cutting agenda. That has notably demonstrated the power of supply side economics, by increasing US tax revenues (albeit not by enough to keep up with his spending commitments), and its stimulating effects on the economy.

[John Wiseman]

When is David Cameron going to tell us what he stands for. It seems he doesn't know what he is all about, and wants to please everybody. This is impossible, and because he is dithering around he (and the Party) are loosing support. I for one am seriously thinking of resigning from the Party