A blue tide has washed over the latest nominations for The Spectator’s Readers’ Representative award. Last week, your votes were for parliamentarians from right across the political spectrum: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, even the occasional Ukipper. This week, they are mostly for Conservatives. Perhaps this is a sympathy vote following Liam Fox’s resignation. Perhaps it is something to do with the phases of the moon. We cannot be certain.
The Conservatives’ Philip Davies now faces competition from his party colleagues Nadine Dorries (of whom Libby Blaxall writes, ‘Nadine helps me to remember why politicians exist’) and Peter Bone (whose views, according to Ron Forrest, ‘coincide with those of the majority of the Conservative party and he expresses them forcefully’). Another reader, Alexander Ellis, argues that ‘the revolution in education being pushed through by Michael Gove has the potential to change the lives of millions for the better’.
Which isn’t to say that politicians from other parties are being neglected. Labour’s Tom Watson is still picking up votes for his role in excavating phone hacking at the News of the World. And there are even nominations for some non-human residents of Westminster. Writing in praise of Larry the No. 10 cat, Margaret Irvin observes that, unlike his political masters, Larry’s ‘incompetence at his primary occupation (of catching mice) does not have dire consequences for the rest of the population’.
There is still time for you to submit your own nomination. Simply point your computer in the direction of new.spectator.co.uk/parliamentarian and make a case, in no more than 250 words, for the parliamentarian of your choice. The best written, most persuasive entry will win its author a pair of tickets for the awards ceremony at Claridge’s on Wednesday 16 November. People, and cats, of any political persuasion are welcome to apply.