The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but three days away. At 10 pm on Saturday 14 September, in Castle 2 of the Crowne Plaza, with cash bar on hand, and an imaginative dress code, the best in blogging, campaigning, social media and politics in general will be feted in a ceremony filled with razzmatazz, glitz and glamour.
Our Members’ Forum has now been e-mailed with the chance to vote for the majority of the awards so I can now start to reveal the shortlists in those categories. This time, it’s the turn of or favourite Conservative and Labour MPs. Nominations were requested, along with a brief supporting statement, during the first 3 weeks in August. Here’s what you came up with.
The Lib Dems’ Favourite Tory MP award
Nick Boles. He seems to be the only MP (of any party) speaking up about the need for planning reform to build more houses
Peter Bone and Nadine Dorries for services to the Liberal Democrats
Dan Byles for his stand on HS2
Ken Clarke I don’t think there is any subject on which I don’t fully agree with him, except the party appellation he puts by his name on the ballot paper.
David Davis, purely for his opposition to the boundary reform on the entirely principled grounds that to reduce the number of MPs without reducing the payroll vote would have the effect of increasing the power of the executive over the legislature.
Michael Gove. No seriously. A thoughtful, non managerial, (yes that’s an insult) minister who has more ambition for children of working class backgrounds than so called progressives.
Ben Gummer: sent me an utterly charming note when i pointed out his campaign for income tax returns to show people how their taxes had been spent was originally a Lib Dem policy
Robert Halfon is an independently minded MP, who has lead the efforts to reduce fuel duty and key in the Tories trying to steal our fantastic income tax threshold policy!
Sarah Wollaston MP – for having her own mind and speaking it.
The Lib Dems’ Favourite Labour MP award
Stella Creasy for her campaign against payday lenders
Alistair Darling, for the Better Together campaign and generally being the only Labour MP I can name who doesn’t want to make me swear.
Gloria De Piero MP for her “Why do you hate me?” campaign tackling voters perceptions of politicans
Frank Field – Still thinking the unthinkable!
Tom Harris for being a Doctor Who fan and being “witty & outspoken”
Margaret Hodge for her indomitable leadership of the Public Accounts Committee, holding all to account and fighting for citizen’s and taxpayers’ rights.
Alan Johnson for being a real gentleman, a balanced all round good guy, able to cover a wide range of issues in a sensible way, and a model MP.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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19 Comments
Diane Abbott and Peter Bottomley for me.
I like Diane Abbott too, but sadly she wasn’t an option.
I am incredulous at this choice of ‘favourite’ Tory: “Michael Gove. No seriously. A thoughtful, non managerial, (yes that’s an insult) minister who has more ambition for children of working class backgrounds than so called progressives.”
I am astounded that Gove’s rhetoric is taken at face value. Has anyone noticed what Gove is doing – forced academies, free schools in areas where they are neither needed nor wanted, a narrowing of the curriculum, making vocational courses distinctly a second class option. This is the behaviour of an arch centraliser.
As for Gove standing up for working class children more than progressives – this would be funny if it wasn’t insulting. It can only be believed if one thinks on the same lines as Gove, that teachers are ‘happy with failure’ and ‘failures of promise’. If this really is the view of some Liberal Democrats then perhaps they would like to explain their reasoning to the LDEA or the remaining teachers (are there any?) left in this party.
And to think that party this used to be the party of Education (under Ashdown at least). What happened?
Correction to final point: And to think that this party used to be the party of Education (under Ashdown at least). What happened?
Hmmph. Other than Clarke, the Tory list looks like a narrow selection to make a point rather than a genuine mix of Tories near our views. Boles on housing is a lunatic who will destroy landscapes without delivering the housing we need, Gove is destroying community education and constructing a new elite tier for the sharp-elbowed, Byles on HS2 is just following the well-trodden Nimby path …
Wollaston is not bad.
I hope Bone and Dorries win though.
Helen: I know the person who made that nomination and he was, indeed, entirely serious. He’s also going into teaching, starting his training this year. I suspect by the time next year’s nominations come around he will have learned the error of his ways.
Sarah Wollaston was my nomination; who did you nominate?
Jennie: “… he was, indeed, entirely serious. ” I don’t doubt it.
“He’s also going into teaching, starting his training this year. ” Good luck to him. He’ll need it.
“I suspect by the time next year’s nominations come around he will have learned the error of his ways.” Well yes but then he will have become one of the ‘enemy within,’ another Gove descriptor of teachers who choose to teach in state education, in order to make a positive difference in young people’s lives.
From what I have seen and heard on the RSA and YouTube video talks. I think Sir Ken Robinson should be in charge of Education.
hooray for gove and campbell under the terms described above.
I nominated Wollaston too.
Who the hell nominated Tom Harris? He’s a closet Tory and one of the most unpleasant people ever.
Favourite Tory????? Hmm this is difficult. It might be Clarke as he seems one of the few sensible ones left. I actually quite like Heseltine in his way. The younger generation in my opinion are just terrifying, starting of course with Michael Neocon Gove. I presume it was Gove that Vince had in mind when he talked about the government’s Maoist tendencies. Or perhaps it was Boles who I seem to remember saying he didn’t like planning and preferred chaos. Can only wonder what new builds would look like if Boles had his way though I expect the developers would make big profits.
I must have missed the nominations somehow, so can’t complain.
But I would have liked to see Rory Stewart on the Tory list.
I like Stephen Timms, a passionate supporter of child abduction and how we can move into a better time.
This subject to anyone who has anything to do with law, knows, how painful it is for those concerned.
Stephen Timms “a passionate supporter of child abduction” ? Posters, myself included, should think both before they post and while they are posting.
@Hugh p,
… and readers should think while reading.
Typos, missing words, and unintended inversions, are easy to do.
If you ever read my posts, watch out for missing “not”‘s!
I wonder whether LDV might consider removing Gove from the list of nominations? Considering that he is now planning to undermine much of Sarah Teather’s excellent work on early years – learning through play – he is surely not someone Lib Dems can support, considering his Gradgrind plans for four year olds:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/12/early-years-schooling-damaging-wellbeing?
Utterly embarrassing on the Michael Gove front. A dramatically centralising programme which removes power from parents (and the electorate at large) and undermines the freedom of children.
(Not to mention his overspending by £1 billion on freeschools and academies.)
@ Hugh P I should have added that he supports the problems with law and international child abduction, sorry I forgot you have no MP’s interested in the subject.