I am at the IoD for the Political Studies Association Awards lunch. For some reason the organisers are keen to interrupt my meal and encourage me to blog the award winners. Here goes then...
Politician of the Year - Boris Johnson
Parliamentarian of the Year - Vince Cable
Backbencher of the Year - Frank Field
Setting the Political Agenda - Anne Owers
Political Communications - Tony Travers
Lifetime Contribution - Vernon Bogdanor
Special Recognition - Lord Norton & Prof Anne Phillips
Broadcaster - Gary Gibbon
Journalist - Steve Richards
Special Judges' Award - Michael Cockerell
A rather disappointing acceptance speech by Vince Cable who told an anecdote that most of the people in the room had heard before.
Ken Livingstone presented the award for Politician of the Year to Boris ... Or he would have done if he had been there. Instead, his Dad, Stanley, received the award on his behalf.Ken was quite gracious in his remarks until he told Stanley that he could have made the ex Mayor's life much better if he had been better at using contraception.
Political academics confirmed their lefty reputation voting the Top 4 American Presidents since the war...
1. FDR
2. Bill Clinton
3. JFK
4. Harry Truman
All Democrats, natch. Not a Reagan in sight. And the two worst? Ford and George W Bush. Quelle suprise. Last time they were polled, only 9% of political academics would admit to being Conservative supporters.
12 comments:
Many Americans see Reagan as having done some very good and some blooming awful.
Did very little for manufactoring, just spent oddles, which later teh Dems paid down, invaded a foreign country etc etc.
His opposition was awful, Carter and [forgotten who] and he was better than them.
This may also explain why politics is considered such a useless degree
Iain, I dont often disagree with you but your views on academics and the US Presidency are off-base. Most Republican presidents since the war have been either non-entities (Eisenhower) or umitigated disasters (Ford) or unscrupulous liars (Nixon). Reagan bucks the trend only because he holidayed so much. In contrast, all the major innovations in US politics originating from the President, at least since Teddy Roosevelt, came from Democrats.
In saying that, left-wing bias could explain putting Clinton and JFK ahead of Truman, and not having LBJ in there.
What on earth has Steve Richards ever done?
He is not journalist of the year; he is left wing journalist of the year.
He is nearly as obnoxious as Polly Toynebe.
And Reagan is undoubtedly the top American post war President.
'since' the war? FDR died before the war ended. shows how desperate they were to get him and his bogus 'new deal' in.
Otherwise the usual lefty rubbish.
'Republican liars' -- And these lefties can still praise Clinton?
Nixon ended the Vietnam war - a disastrous war started by two democrats, Kennedy and LBJ. The latter telling a blatant lie over the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to increase US involvement.
Lefty apologists make me sick. Dumb assed bastards
PS
word verification 'gramp' [ which is what my step grandson calls me :-) ]
How can FDR have been one of the best presidents since the war as he died before it finished? I will give them best president during the war fair and square for him.
Nixon was a very odd man but he also opened up China too and as Trevorsden said ended Vietnam. Steve Richards - whoo hoo - crack open the bubbly - oops, still sloshed from voting eh?
Seriously though Vernon Bogdanor & Frank Field are very worthy winners and BoJo is a fair punt.
From My not particularly lefty view, Clinton Will look great stuck between 2 unmitigated catastrophies. Carter was just as terrible as Ford, Bush was the worst since the useless Hoover. Reagan is fondly remembered, but Has a similar legacy to Thatcher, wounds still festering. Nixon was actually an enormous talent. Its just a pity what paranoia can do to a man.
I wouldn't take the opinions of "academics" who think that FDR was a post war leader too seriously. The idea that Clinton & JFK were better than Reagan or Eisenhower is simply preposterous.
trevorsden - I'm not a 'lefty apologist'. I would never consider voting for Labour or any left-wing party. I just don't buy into the view of the right that Republican presidents = good, Democrat presidents = bad.
I agree that Nixon opened up China but that didn't stop him being the most unscrupulous occupier of the Presidency. Worse than Clinton in that respect by a country mile!
JFK...A serial adulterer, brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war and sat back and watched the Berlin wall being built.
Lyndon Baines Johnson should top the list. Forget the Vietnam war-that was Kennedys.
He enacted the civil rights legislation. He changed the Senate
Kennedy was all show. But of course we live in a celebrity age so he would be on the list.
LBJ is the subject of the greatest political biography ever written.
Robert A Caro "The years of Lyndon Johnson'. A pulitzer prize winner.
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