As trailed – here, here and here – Lib Dem Voice’s end-of-the-year awards are back this year, bigger and better than last year ever before.

In total, there are eight categories for which we’re seeking votes in the LDV 2008 Awards. Nominations were submitted by LDV’s readers; the short-list was agreed by the LDV Collective; and the winners will be decided by a ‘fair votes’ ballot using the alternative vote. How much more impeccably liberal can you get?

Any LDV reader may take part; it should only take a minute or so to complete the survey.

To vote in the LDV 2008 Awards click here.

Below is a guide to the categories and the nominees:

Liberal Democrat Politician of the Year

>> Chris Huhne – for his consistently liberal advocacy as the party’s shadow home secretary;
>> Lynne Featherstone – for her sensitive and no-nonsense campaigning over the tragic case of Baby P;
>> Steve Webb – for pushing the environmental agenda, especially for the Green Road out of Recession;
>> Vince Cable – for his far-sighted insight into the coming recession, and for constantly positioning the Lib Dems ahead of the curve.

Liberal Democrat Campaigner of the Year

>> Kirsty Williams – for her victory in the race to become the party’s first female leader in Wales;
>> Neil Trafford – for his unstinting friendship and effective campaigning for the party over many years.
>> Lynne Featherstone – for consistent, trenchant campaigning on a range of issues.
>> Ros Scott – for her overwhelming victory in the race to be elected Party President.

Liberal Democrat By-election Performance of the Year

>> Fiona Whelan (Hardwick division, Cambridgeshire) – overturned a Tory majority to win by 200 votes;
>> Jane Morgan & Nick Bason (Hale End and Highams Park ward, Waltham Forest) – for holding off a strong Tory challenge in a ward represented by Iain Duncan Smith;
>> Linda Chung (Hampstead Town ward, Camden) – for turning a Tory majority of 549 votes into a Lib Dem victory by 128;
>> Mark Mills (Holywell ward, Oxford) – for seeing off Tory and Green challenges on a polling day held on the penultimate day of the summer term in a 95% student ward.
>> Tony Potter (St George West ward, Bristol) – for leap-frogging from third to first place, ending Labour’s domination, and winning b y 107 votes.

Most Desperate Press Release of the Year by a Liberal Democrat

>> Don Foster: Football clubs ripping off fans;
>> Lembit Opik: “time for Lib Dems to stop the conspiracy against me”;
>> Lord Tyler: for calling on the BBC’s Director-General to make public the voting figures in Strictly Come Dancing
;
>> Nick Clegg: Proud to buy British;
>> Nick Clegg: for clarifying his atheism with the statement, “I myself am not an active believer”;
>> The Lib Dem media office: for publicly emphasising to the media the party’s plans to call 250,000 electors with an automated message by Nick Clegg.

Liberal Voice of the Year

>> Boris Johnson – for his writings for The Daily Telegraph, and his work as Mayor of London;
>> Campaigners on behalf of Jean Charles de Menezes (Justice4Jean.org) and Stockwell Shooting Inquest Jury;
>> Daily Kos and Huffington Post – for their coverage of the 2008 US presidential elections;
>> David Davis MP – for his campaign on behalf of 42 days;
>> Ian Hislop – for his work as editor of Private Eye and appearances on Have I Got News For You;
>> Joanna Lumley – for her campaigning on behalf of the Gurkhas;
>> Joseph Stiglitz – for his prescient critiques of the management of globalization, and “free market fundamentalists”;
>> Margo Macdonald MSP – for her campaign to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland;
>> The Atheist Bus Campaign (Ariane Sherine) – for launching the first ever atheist advertising campaign in the UK.

Political Broadcaster / Journalist of the Year

>> Andrew Rawnsley (The Guardian);
>> Evan Davies (The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4);
>> Keith Olbermann (MSNBC);
>> Nicky Campbell & Shelagh Fogarty (BBC Radio 5 Live);
>> Robert Peston (BBC);
>> Simon Mayo (BBC Radio 5 Live).

Political Radio / TV Programme of the Year

>> Any Questions? (BBC Radio 4);
>> Newsnight (BBC2);
>> Saturday Night Live – for Tina Fey’s impressions of Sarah Palin (NBC);
>> The Daily Politics (BBC2);
>> The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central);
>> This Week (BBC1).

Defining Political Moment of the Year

>> Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report;
>> Gordon Brown for his “we not only saved the world…” gaffe;
>> Hazel Blears’ launch of the Sustainable Communities Act;
>> The collapse and subsequent nationalisation/recapitalisation of the banks in the USA and UK;
>> The election of Barack Obama as President of the USA.

To vote in the LDV 2008 Awards click here.