PSA Awards 2010
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AWARD WINNERS TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2010 One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA THE AWARDS Politician of Year 2010..................................................................3 Lifetime Achievement in Politics ..............................................5 Parliamentarian .............................................................................7 Setting the Political Agenda .......................................................9 Political Journalist.......................................................................11 Broadcast Journalist ..................................................................12 Special ‘Engaging the Public’ Award .......................................13 Best Political Satire.....................................................................14 Lifetime Achievement in Political Studies............................16 Politics/Political Studies Communicator .............................19 Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies ..........................................................................20 Best book in British political studies 1950-2010 ...............21 W. J. M. MacKenzie Prize 2010 .................................................22 ANNUAL AWARD POLITICIAN OF YEAR 2010 This is an award for domestic politicians who have made a significant impact in 2010. Any person elected for political office in the UK can be considered. The Judges Say described him as “one of the ablest” Despite the inconclusive outcome of the students he has taught. 2010 general election, the Conservatives After completing his studies he applied made the most progress of all parties – successfully for a position in the gaining over 100 seats and securing one of Conservative Research Department. While the largest swings of votes ever recorded. there he worked alongside David Davis as Conservative advances were characterised part of a team providing briefings for the by the leadership of David Cameron – then Prime Minister, John Major, for use at taking the party from sustained opposition Prime Minister’s Questions. Later he acted DAVID CAMERON – to preparedness for government. as a political adviser to the Chancellor of In the election aftermath, Cameron the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, and gained showed remarkable tactical guile. His “big, first-hand experience of the turbulent NICK CLEGG open and comprehensive offer” to the nature of politics during the Black Liberal Democrats paved the way for the Wednesday economic crisis of 1992. He first peacetime formal coalition of the UK was also an adviser to Home Secretary government for nearly 80 years. For Michael Howard. leading his party to the brink of victory, In 1994 he was offered a job at Carlton and securing his party the primary position Communications where he became director in the coalition, David Cameron MP is a of corporate affairs. The job gave him worthy recipient of the award for Politician responsibility for the television company’s of the Year 2010. public relations. He remained with Carlton for seven years, but did not turn his back on The 2010 Election will be remembered for politics during this time: in 1997 he went the UK’s first ever televised debates part-time in order to mount an unsuccessful between the three main party leaders. Few bid for the seat of Stafford in that year’s could have predicted the impact the general election. Liberal Democrat leader was to have on the It was not until 2001 that he entered debates – and on the governance of the parliament as MP for Witney, a safe nation. According to the 2010 British Conservative seat. He was quickly Election Study, 78% of British voters said appointed to the Home Affairs Select he had done “the best job” in the first Committee. From 2003 he was appointed leaders’ debate, and thereafter, poll to a succession of front bench posts. evidence showed that the public believed Following the appointment of Michael the Liberal Democrats had run the best Howard as Conservative leader in 2004, campaign. Meanwhile Clegg emerged as Cameron entered the shadow cabinet as the towering figure in his own party as a head of policy coordination, in which post consequence of the campaign. he played a significant role in drawing up Although the Liberal Democrat share the party’s 2005 manifesto. of the vote rose only slightly, and the In the leadership election that followed party’s number of MPs fell, Nick Clegg’s the party’s defeat at the 2005 general leadership of a party from the Westminster election Cameron stood alongside Ken fringe to a partnership in government and Clarke, David Davis and Liam Fox. In the his rise to Deputy Prime Minister are first round Davis, considered the favourite testament to his commanding presence in to win the leadership, came first with 62 2010. votes. Cameron, widely regarded as an outside chance, came an uncomfortably The Right Hon David Cameron MP close second with 56. In the second round, David Cameron was born in 1966 in Cameron led Davis by 90 votes to 57, and in London, the third of four children. He was the final ballot of party members, Cameron educated at Eton College before entering achieved a resounding victory, with 134,446 Brasenose College, Oxford, to study votes to Davis’s 64,398. Philosophy, Politics and Economics. While Under his leadership the party finally there he captained the college tennis team began to rebuild its position in opinion polls, and joined the Bullingdon Club. He avoided achieving a sustained lead over Labour for student politics. the first time in a decade. Cameron He graduated with first class honours in successfully transformed the party’s image, 1988. Vernon Bogdanor, his tutor, later softening its stance in various areas of social POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION 60TH ANNIVERSARY AWARDS 2010 3 policy and extending its appeal beyond its leader in 2006, Clegg was given the core supporters, without provoking the Home Affairs portfolio. From this position splits that some had feared. he launched a series of profile-raising The Conservatives under David campaigns on civil liberties, opposing Cameron emerged from the 2010 election ID cards and what the Liberal Democrats as the largest party, and their coalition regarded as excessive curtailments with the Liberal Democrats, is a remarkable of individual liberty in the pursuit of testament to its leader’s flexibility and counter-terrorism. political skills. As the UK’s youngest prime When Campbell resigned the leadership minister for two centuries, David Cameron in 2007 Clegg announced his intention to has made a confident start on charting stand and quickly became the front runner. the unexplored territory of multiparty In the event he beat his rival Chris Huhne government in 21st century Britain. by just 1.2 per cent of the vote. Nevertheless, the party quickly lined up The Right Hon Nick Clegg MP behind Clegg’s leadership. As leader he Nick Clegg was born in Chalfont St Giles, pledged to continue the defence of civil Buckinghamshire, in 1967. He was the third liberties, to give more power over public of four children born to a Dutch mother and services to the people they served, and to a half-Russian father. He was educated at protect the environment. Westminster School and Cambridge, It was in the 2010 election campaign where he studied social anthropology that he showed his true mettle, and captained the Robinson College tennis demonstrating beyond doubt in the team. He was a postgraduate student at the three televised leaders’ debates that he University of Minnesota and, later, at the was a match for the leaders of the larger College of Europe in Bruges. After a spell parties and earning significant opinion working in New York as a trainee journalist poll advances in the process. Despite a under Christopher Hitchens at The Nation, somewhat disappointing result for his he won the inaugural Financial Times David party in the general election itself, Mr Clegg Thomas Award. He was sent by the paper to handled coalition negotiations with the Hungary where he wrote articles about other parties with skill. Having struck a economic reform in Eastern Europe. deal with the Conservative Party for a In 1994 Clegg began work at the joint administration, he has succeeded European Commission in Brussels, where in returning his party to the corridors of he managed aid programmes in parts of power after an absence of many decades, the former Soviet Union. He later worked and there is every sign that he will live up for the Trade Commissioner and EC to the promise of his performances in the Vice-President Leon Brittan as a trade leaders’ debates in his role as Deputy negotiator with China and Russia. Prime Minister. In 1999 he was elected to the European Parliament as MEP for the East Midlands. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, and acted as trade and industry spokesman for the Liberal group in the European Parliament. He stepped down in 2004 and worked for a while as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. At the 2005 general election Clegg successfully contested the seat of Sheffield Hallam to succeed the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Richard Allan. He was appointed Europe spokesman by the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and acted as deputy to Sir Menzies Campbell, the Foreign Affairs spokesman. When Campbell succeeded Kennedy as party 4 POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION 60TH ANNIVERSARY AWARDS 2010 DIAMOND JUBILEE AWARD LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN POLITICS This is an award for domestic