In answer to your questions

So, what is The Spectator coming to? Dishing out trophies to Harman and all these Labour types? Has the editor’s chair made me crawl up to people like Harman and Darling? Am I angling for a political seat? The comments to my earlier blog post raise some excellent points – about politics, polemic and The Spectator itself. I thought they deserved a response in a post rather than a comment.

The Spectator’s tradition of honouring talent on all sides of the political divide in its annual awards is a long one:  La Harman was our 24th Parliamentarian of the Year. While Harman was speaking, Boris and I were holding her trophy and looking at the names that hers would be engaved next to. That plate, doubtless being fitted to a downstairs loo in Peckham as I type, is not a Who’s Who of the Conservative Party. Just as Time Magazine does its Man of the Year – hero or villain – The Spectator awards people who are effective no matter to what end.