toryleadership

Media Award

In third place are the newspapers.  This wasn't a good contest for them.  The Telegraph followed opinion in the Tory party.  It didn't lead it.  It only endorsed Mr Cameron after it was clear he had already won.  The Mail tried to get Ken Clarke elected and failed.  It also failed to ignite the drugs row.  The Sun was peripheral.  The right-wing press never got their act together in this election contest and are unlikely to be as feared/ respected/ as influential ever again.

In second place I'm going to award the internet.  I think this site and other bloggers have often been ahead of the newspapers but, much more importantly, have been the pollsters and YouGov, the internet pollster, in particular.  I'll publish the full results of ConservativeDemocracy.com's survey soon (you can still take part by the way) but  the lead reason for people voting for Mr Cameron was that they thought he was popular with the public.  The Davis team were reportedly devastated by the YouGov poll of the weekend after conference which showed such a big swing to Mr Cameron.

In first place I'm awarding Nick Robinson, BBC's Political Editor, and Tom Bradby, his successor at ITN.  Bradby, in particular,  led the reporting of DD's conference speech.  It bombed and it bombed badly he told the public (anh interpretation that still infuriates the Davis-ites).  These two talking heads - and the production/editorial teams behind them - had big influences on this contest and will continue to be very big players in politics for the next few years (at least until the blogosphere really hits its potential heights).

***

PS Iain Dale, Chief of Staff to DD, has posted that camp's own awards results here.

Big Idea Award

In third place is David Cameron for his idea of shared responsibility.  It has a nice warm feel to it and has taken flesh in his idea for a national school leaver programme (a policy idea which hasn't been awarded).

Runner-up is Liam Fox for his heartfelt emphasis on human rights.  Conservatives need ideas to inspire a new generation to become Conservatives.  This is such an idea and is discussed in the PS to this post.

The winner of the Big Idea Award is David Willetts.  After his allegedly wobbly support for DD in recent weeks it is too easy to forget the thoughtful contributions he made to the debate in the early months of the leadership race.  His big idea was that smaller government could more sustainably be achieved by reducing the demand for government - rather than the supply.  I wrote this about DW's idea in a July article for The Times:

“Up until now the formulaic Conservative response [to the bloated size of government] has been to identify ever more detailed ways of reducing the supply of government services — Michael Howard’s carefully costed James review being the latest failed attempt to persuade voters that there are painless ways of slimming government bureaucracies.

The breakthrough insight… is to approach the problem from the opposite side of the equation. The problem of fat government can be cracked… by first thinking of ways of reducing the demand for government. Reduce demand and the supply problem takes care of itself. The public will never vote for cuts in state services until they are convinced that those services are no longer needed. Voters may be unhappy at the performance of the welfare state but they will support its continuation until there are fewer needy people or until vulnerable people can call upon superior sources of care.

Social breakdown is a leading cause of higher government spending. A Conservative programme to reverse this breakdown is urgently needed, therefore, to address the crime-ridden estates, weak extended families and substance abuse that have all created chronic forms of dependency.

Social reform is not only the right way to reduce the long-term size of government, it is also the road to social justice.”

Ex-Leader Award

All of our last three leaders share this award...

IDS gets his third of the award for being ahead of his time.  During his curtailed leadership he said that the party must become the champion of the vulnerable.  It was a theme that few understood at first and which his successor largely abandoned.  But all of this contest's participants spoke at his Centre for Social Justice (in which I must declare an involvement) and David Cameron's big theme is 'modern compassionate conservatism'.

William Hague only had to be mentioned at a hustings meeting to raise a cheer.  Likely to be back to frontbench politics as Shadow Foreign Secretary the party will have a devout Eurosceptic and supporter of the war on terror in charge of Tory international policy.  Let's hope - with the shadow development spokesman - he'll also be committed to tackling issues of global injustice and take forward Liam Fox's human rights agenda...

Michael Howard shares the award because he oversaw a lengthy leadership process which has given the party new heart.  There wasn't a rush to elect a leader as many Tory MPs had demanded.  What has resulted is a very creative process at the end of which pollsters have found that the public thinks that we are more united than Labour.  That hasn't been true for a very long time.  I'm in a generous mood today and so am going to overlook the fact that this lengthy process is at least as much by accident as design.  Michael Howard engineered the length of process by trying to take the vote away from members.  He failed in that attempt but we'll forgive him given the new spirit of party unity.

Policy Award

This is a pretty lean awards category.  David Cameron, in particular, largely eschewed detailed policy ideas - preferring grand themes.  When it came to policy he chose the reverse gear - on tuition fees and the patients passport, for example.  David Davis had a few ideas but they hardly captured the public imagination.

Leaving the EPP was clearly the most controversial policy idea and I'll give it third place.  I'm not entirely sure if it qualifies as a policy, however.  You can see how hard this category is.

Joint second place will go to George Osborne and his belief in flatter taxation.   He has set up a  committee that will report in due course... Mr Osborne can share second place with David Davis' growth rule - an approach that would have cut taxes by £38bn over the course of a parliament.

First place must go to David Cameron's phonics policy - already accepted by the besieged Ruth Kelly.  Fast work, Mr Cameron.  This really is government by proxy and will help tens of thousands of children to read.

I'll post a few more awards tomorrow... in the meantime please complete the latest ConservativeHome survey...

Blogger Award

I promised 'on the hour, every hour' and this post is a bit late... I blame a verrrrry loooooong Christmas cards queue in the post office.  But moving on...

Joint third place is awarded to James Hellyer.  Not popular with everyone but I love James' tenacity and he and I were on the same side at the start of the race in supporting Fox.  I'm also awarding Watlington for his excellent Social Affairs Unit postings.

Second place goes to Guido Fawkes.  Always irreverend Guido was very rude about your Editor once (Taliban Timmy!) but his idea of naming DD as Basher deserves applause.

But top spot goes to DD4Leader blogger Wat Tyler.  Wat's man may not have won the race but he provided us with endless amusement and insight.  Thank you Wat.  We will miss you... or will you return in another form?

Strategic Insight Award

This is the one awards category where the Davis-ites sweep the board. 

In third place is Mr Davis himself with his wristband generation speech.  Some visitors to this site were a bit sniffy about the idea but Davis (and IDS who originally provided the idea) know that people don't vote out of crude interest alone; they vote for a party that is 'good for them and for their neighbour'.  The party must pass what David Davis called the Decency Test.  DC certainly passes it but DD put it very well.

In second place is Paul Goodman MP's recent Platform blog.  Mr Goodman suggested that the Tories - led by Mr Cameron - might rejoin the establishment.  Mr Cameron certainly seems to be inching much closer to the establishment's views on issues like the environment, taxation and civil liberties.  Some of us don't welcome that and will be vigilant against it.

The winner is David Davis for his 'sell early and often' insight:

"If I became leader of this party I wouldn’t spend half of this parliament setting up commissions.  I already know what I believe.  I believe today what I believed six months ago.  I believed six months ago what I believed five years ago.  I know that Britain’s economy needs lower and simpler taxes and the first budget of the next Conservative government must begin to deliver them... And I know that free trade, good governance and property rights are the key to progress in the third world.  I will spend all of this parliament explaining those beliefs to the British people.  Some of them may not look popular now but time and the facts are on our side.  This parliament is still young.  I have the determination to spend the whole of this parliament selling an authentic, socially-just conservatism to the British people.  In the last two parliaments our policies became as timid as the limited time we gave ourselves to sell them.  There will be serious policy development under my leadership but I’m not willing to spend three years in a policy vacuum – and spent one year filling it.  Our main policy priorities need to be communicated and explained now.  The role of free trade in making poverty history will be a top priority."

On the Patients Passport and tax Mr Cameron has sometimes appeared reluctant to sell difficult ideas to the British public.  I hope Mr Cameron's leadership won't be characterised by Major-like caution.  We'll soon see.

Opportunist Award

When you are dealing with the world's least trustworthy electorate - the Conservative Parliamentary Party - there are many candidates for this award but I've restricted myself to three awards (and four individuals).

In joint third place are MPs John Maples and Anne Main.  Mr Maples actually wrote an endorsement of DD for this site and was responsible for planning Mr Davis' Blackpool programme... but he failed to vote for the Shadow Home Secretary.  New MP Anne Main also defected from Camp Davis.  She announced her defection on Radio 4 and without even telling Mr Davis.

In second place is John Bercow.  At the end of September Mr Bercow said that "Eton, hunting, shooting and lunch at Whites" made David Cameron the wrong man for the job.  Mr Bercow was then supporting Ken Clarke.  Guess who he supported soon afterwards?

But the overall winner is Alan Duncan.  Today's Sun reminds us of his shameless opportunism.  Remember that attack on Mr Cameron as having overreached himself?

Mr Duncan's advice to Mr Cameron was "go away and leave it to the big boys".  At that time Mr Duncan was privately backing Mr Davis.  After DC's Blackpool speech Mr Duncan obviously decided that Mr Cameron had grown up  and threw his weight behind the new frontrunner.

AD might get his reward in the next 48 hours...

Big Moments Award

Throughout the rest of today - on the hour, every hour until I run out of award ideas! - ConservativeHome will be presenting its Awards Of the Contest (notice the glittering golden writing). 

The first Award is for The Biggest Moment/ Event.

In third place is the Cornerstone Dinner at which David Davis underperformed and Liam Fox excelled.  From then on Dr Fox began actively courting the right-wing MPs who could have otherwise underpinned DD's candidacy.

In second place is the Question Time debate.   Although David Davis won the debate (according to readers of this blog who reflect the overall bias to Cameron) it was not enough to halt David Cameron's already established and 'big' momentum.

He had that 'big mo' because of his performance in Blackpool.  DC's speech to the Blackpool Party Conference is ConservativeHome.com's Event of the Leadership Race.  Leo McKinstry - writing for today's Express - says Mr Cameron possesses "astonishing eloquence":

"Some critics have dismissed his fluency as a showy irrelevance but, given that politics is all about communication, it is a vital asset and one that his inarticulate rival David Davis did not possess".