I'm listening to a rant by Nick Cohen at the Orwell Prize shortlist debate. He's accusing Gordon Brown of sacking Martin Bright of the New Statesman. Is saying the Orwell Prize has been demeaned by the fact that Bright isn't on the journalism shortlist but Peter Oborne and Peter Hitchens is. Hitchens is responding and has made the point that Nick Cohen is ... er ... pissed. It's all kicking off!!!
Anyway, this blogpost was intended to report the delightful fact that the judges have felt it necessary to include me in the final shortlist of six blogs. The others are...
People's Republic of Mortimer
Andrew Sparrow
Nightjack
Three Thousand Versts of Lonliness
Paul Mason
Sitting in the audience waiting for the shortlist to be announced by the panel chairman Jean Seaton was a very peculiar experience. Having convinced myself that I wouldn't be on the shortlist I found myself curiously eager to hear my name announced. I have never actually won an award for anything (many of you will not be surprised) in my life, so far as I can remember. To even be shortlisted for this award is an honour I find difficult to compute. My only regret is that Tom Harris and Hopi Sen didn't make the cut. They should have.
Sorry to say this, but any award for blogging that Guido Fawkes doesn't win ain't worth a spit. He is by a country mile the best blogger in the country.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a shame he has a comments section that is stunk out by halfwits who fancy they're hilarious (but aren't)
Congratulations, regardless of Iain.
ReplyDeleteAnd in such nice company...
That shortlist is absolute shit. Apart from Nightjack.
ReplyDelete(And yes, OH was nominated, along with some real stars)
Sweet baby Jesus Iain. Well done. I am amazed to still be in the running. I can't understand why HopiSen didn't make the cut either. Anyway, well done you and all the rest and thanks for breaking the news. I thought you'd be there to break the news and I was right.
ReplyDeleteWish I could have made it there myself but with being an anonymous blogger and everything.....
Off to drink more wine here at NightJack towers.
Is anyone here listed in the Blogger's Choice Awards?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.plenty2say.com
Well done!
ReplyDeleteFran said...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, regardless of Iain.
--------------------------------
I didn't mean it to come out quite the way it did, and I do congratulate (the other) Iain who was and is in the van of UK political blogging.
But I do think that for his holding the government to account, for the digging (and scooping) he has done, for 'getting' the likes of Hain, and for his scathing wit and the general quality of his journalism, that Guido Fawkes is the best of the political bloggers.
Iain
ReplyDelete"To even be shortlisted for this award is an honour I find difficult to compute."
Well maybe best to quit whilst you're still ahead, eh?
Anyway, good luck!
Congratulations Iain (Dale)
ReplyDeleteWhen will the winner be announced?
Both Iains here deserve attention. Yes, Iain Dale deserves to be on that list, but — for the reasons stated by the other Iain — so does Guido. It is only Guido's commenters who often (but by no means always) come across poorly.
ReplyDeleteNightjack is of course a good choice, as would Gadget have been — either or both — so that's something good. Otherwise I have to admit to being as unimpressed by the rest of the shortlist as one or two other commenters here have already said.
Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteWorthy though he may be, I am not at all sure that Guido should be on the shortlist.
His followers are too demeaning for a start.
And for all the 'uncovering' that he might be responsible for - I hardly think being a coppers nark qualifies for a 'literary' award.
You have to have something to say, something coherent, constructive, and say it with something approaching - well 'style'.
Now I am not saying the shortlisted six have that, I am not really qualified.
('Free the Shortlisted Six!?')
But I do not frankly think the present incarnation of Guido has - on any count.
Guido wasn't entered/ didn't enter himself for the prize so couldn't have made the shortlist.
ReplyDeleteJust stunned. The longlist was great but this is beyond any expectation. Congratulations to the rest of the list and see you at the ceremony! :-)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. Some very, very stiff competition in Nightjack. But may the best man win!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Iain. Cheers
ReplyDeletePaul
As I said on twitter - congrats, well deserved. Same too for Chekov, Alix and Jack.
ReplyDeleteI hope one of you four wins, none of you being paid journalists and being good writers to boot!
Not a good night for Labour supporting writers all round. Personally, I just really, really hope Henry Porter doesn't win. Very sad Nick Davies didn't get onto the book list.
I think we have a new unit measure for a drunken rant too - the "Cohen"! Was best thing about the debate imo!
Very many congratulations...and all the best for the final. Guido is a serious omission...
ReplyDelete"And for all the 'uncovering' that he might be responsible for - I hardly think being a coppers nark qualifies for a 'literary' award."
ReplyDeleteA copper, on the shortlist for the Orwell Prize.
Go away and THINK about it. Arse
Meanwhile Iain, that saviour of free speech and bastion against mixing biege with blue carpets...
Nightjack is indeed a blog with class - quite devoid of efforts to make one follow him on Twitter or be his friend on Facebook. A man worth having a proper conversation with.
ReplyDeleteHopi Sen seems to be a blog which is purely innuendo and ancient socialism - stultifyingly dull.
Guido, as so many have said, is let down not by his blogging but by the foul-mouthed idiots who find it a good place to exorcise their Tourettes.
I am surprised not to have been nominated... its is the 299th award I was not nominated for - I hope to 300th next week!!
ReplyDeleteMutley
ReplyDeleteI'll nominate you!
Hopi,
ReplyDeleteIs your middle name really "moonshine"?
Kerry McCarthy told me so. She was drunk and naked at the time so it might not be true.
Well?
What’s oh so enormously satisfying about the ‘abortion clinics to do TV adverts’ (and johnnies) story that Iain was getting so exercised about on Sky newspapers a moment ago* is that it will get so far up the nose of Nadine Dorries. :)
ReplyDelete*Front of the Daily Express and the Indie today - apparently.
Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have the knack of widespread appeal whilst remaining very much your own man, with a moral backbone and loyalty to friends. Your writing is instantly accessible, with an easy conversational tone. But by far the greatest gift, is that your words invite the other person, in an intellectually honest way, to think things through and make a contribution. You are, essentially Everyman who invites all-comers, without prejudice.
This blog already made you a distinguished contributor to politics, but the birth of Total Politics and your involvement in it is also to be commended.
You have been consistent and true to yourself. You have shared your personal life a little, and in so doing showed that not only are you an astute diarist, but a deeply human being.
I wish I had your gift.
[blush]
ReplyDeleteOH,
ReplyDeleteNo, it's Newmoon.
Drunk and naked, eh? Lucky you. Or rather, unlucky Kerry.
Congratulations, well deserved. You have every reason to be proud.
ReplyDeletetrevorsden said...
ReplyDeleteAnd for all the 'uncovering' that he might be responsible for - I hardly think being a coppers nark qualifies for a 'literary' award.-----------------------------------
Ok Trevor, if it so easy, YOU break a story.
Your vestal livery is but sick and green and none but fools do wear it.
(That's Shakespeare, by the way)
Trevorsden may "...hardly think being a coppers nark qualifies for a 'literary' award" but surely it would qualify one for an award named after that "copper's nark" supreme, George Orwell?.
ReplyDeleteRory
ReplyDeleteI wondered if anybody would pick that up.
Orwell was a grass for the government and gave a "list" of dirty Commie bastard writers, actors and MPs to the Foreign office.
Nothing like taking out the opposition if you want to be a star.
I accept the nomination Mr Old Holborn.. will there be vol-au-vonts at the prize ceremony?
ReplyDelete