James Forsyth nominated for UK political journalist of the year

It’s the Press Awards tonight and a first for The Spectator – we’re nominated for the first time.

James Forsyth is up for political journalist of the year, and he and I are heading to out to the awards now (after taking out a small mortgage for the £250-a-piece tickets) to hope for the best. Since the Press Awards opened to magazines, they’re one of the few awards The Spectator enters (we tend to avoid the the Editorial Intelligence awards, which are judged by corporate lobbyists) so it was great to make tonight’s shortlist. James is up against some pretty tough competition, but that’s true every week – and every week he comes up with the most insightful commentary around. I’m not sure there is a political journalist who works harder to get behind the scenes of politics, whose work tells you more about what’s really going on.

The quality of his analysis, on the page and on our podcasts, is peerless.