Member News
The inaugural PoliticsHome Awards saw MPs, peers and PoliticsHome readers gather to recognise the political moments of the last year.
Politicshome's Central Lobby had three categories within the awards, the first going to the Woodland Trust who won 'Organisation Contribution to Central Lobby' with the article '2011: The year of the forest?'. James Cooper, head of government affairs at the Trust was in attendance to collect the award. He said:
'Last year showed how much forests matter to people. They also offer incredible value for money by delivering on so many agendas at once.
'The award is also very timely as the Panel set up by government to look into future forestry policy is about to report. We look forward to leading the debate on a new forestry strategy that realises their potential for the benefit of everyone.
'We find PoliticsHome is consistently showing itself to be a key means of both keeping informed and influencing debate'.
Housing minister Grant Shapps MP was in attendance to accept the award for 'MP Contribution to Central Lobby' for his '10 tips for twitter'. In his speech he commended the work of PoliticsHome saying 'we all read it everyday'.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes won Peer contribution to Central Lobbyfor her article 'Law favours burglars'.
The political moment of the year was won by the BSkyB Debate and the award was collected by Labour chief whip Rosie Winterton.
Tom Watson won 'MP of the Year' and paid warm tribute to his fellow nominee and culture select committee member Louise Mensch.
Baroness Shirley Williams received the award for 'Peer of the Year' and collecting the award on her behalf Simon Hughes paid tribute to her contribution to politics.
"I'm sure she will carry on for many years to come and she won't always be supporting the government", he said.
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy picked up the award for 'Campaign of the year' for her campaign over payday loans. Praising the work of PoliticsHome, she said:
"With some of the strategies that people use, sometimes campaigning can be like offering jumbles sales in an eBay world. The thing that I'm very struck about with PoliticsHome is that they are very much in that latter camp.
"PoliticsHome understands the world has changed and how people want to consume media and interact with it has changed. So that's why its really very flattering to have PoliticsHome decide that out of all of the campaigns nominated I was the one they felt deserved the award this year."
'Speech of the Year' was won by Steve Rotheram MP for a passionate speech on Hillsborough during the first ever parliamentary debate on the tragedy. He dedicated his award to the memory of the 96 Hillsborough victims.
Former Conservative MP Paul Goodman, now executive editor of ConservativeHome picked up the award for 'Political Blogger of the Year'.
'Political Tweeter of the Year' was won by @JohnPrescott. The former deputy Prime Minister pre-recorded an acceptance video message, paying special tribute to all of his Twitter followers. He said that social media would play a big role in his bid to become police commissioner for Humberside, later this year.
'Political #hashtag of the Year' was won by #pastytax, and Alison Charlton (@chuzzlit), who was the first person to come up with the unique hashtag during the budget. The award was collected on her behalf by Emily Ashton from The Sun.
Finally 'Political Scoop of the Year' was won by Isabel Oakeshott for her interview in the Sunday Times, entitled 'Huhne, my ruthless husband' on Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce. She indicated that the interview might have saved a few more Westminster marriages as a result of the events which followed.
Twitter was alight during and after the awards, with #polhomeawards receiving over 1,010 Tweets by Tuesday morning.
BBC Parliament was in attendance to film the awards ceremony. The video will be live online from 21:40 on Saturday night.