Monday, October 06, 2008
Slugger Awards 2008: The final shortlist
The judges for the Slugger Awards were corralled into their ‘chambers’ at Stratagem yesterday and not allowed out again until they’d come to decisions in all eleven categories. The whole process took almost four hours and several rounds of tea, coffee and cake. After much deliberation (and in several categories, there was much deliberation), they did finally come to their own conclusions. In the finest Slugger tradition (and deliberately corrupting that famous Fox News strapline), I believe the decisions were “fair, but not necessaily’balanced”. Those on the final shortlist have made it entirely on their own merits. Full details below the fold:
Representatives external to Northern Ireland (ie, House of Commons, European Parliament, House of Lords, Seanad Eireann) :
Peter Robinson, Leader of DUP group, House of Commons
Baroness May Blood, Labour Peer, House of of Lords
Jim Allister, TUV, European Parliament
Journalism:
Ken Reid, UTV
Frank Millar, Irish Times
David Gordon, Belfast Telegraph
Local Council:
Down District Council
Belfast City Council
Fermanagh District Council
Local Newspapers:
North Belfast News
Newry Democrat
Impartial Reporter
MLA:
John O’Dowd, Sinn Fein
Margaret Ritchie, SDLP
Naomi Long, Alliance
Committee Chairs:
Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Féin
Danny Kennedy, UUP
Barry McElduff, Sinn Féin
Up and coming:
Simon Hamilton, DUP
Daithi McKay, Sinn Féin
Basil McCrea, UUP
Political blogger:
NALIL
3000 Versts of Loneliness
Burke’s Corner
Participation and Involvement:
WIMPS - NB This was the unanimous choice of the panel. But in consideration of the few nominations received, Wimps have declined to accept the Award. So we consider this category to have ‘gone on a rollover’ for next year’s Awards. More about this later!
Councillors:
Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh, Sinn Féin
Colin McGrath, SDLP
Deirdre Nelson, DUP
Jobsworth:
Mick Fealty
Neighbourhood Renewal
Assembly Commission
Mick Fealty @ 11:30 AM
Ok.... so when are the real nominations being posted?
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 01:51 PMSome questionable nominations there. What is the criteria? Quality or the amount of attention that one gets? What exactly has Mrs Long done or Ms Richie to deserve a nomination? And Daithai has only has one issue...the giants causeway...and that was last year!
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 02:53 PM“Jim Allister, independent MEP” the man on a DUP mandate who runs his own local TUV party spiel from his Euro website. Wtf? He should get the award for opportunist alright!
Peter Robinson, there’s more leadership in this alleged ‘twitching corpse’ of Gordon Brown!
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 04:08 PMGuys,
They are not nominations, they are short listed from the nominations received from Slugger readers. All will become clear when we announce the winners online.
I am more than happy for people to contest the panel’s decision, in fact it’s my hope that people will and won’t hold back, just so long as you play by the old Slugger rule: “play the ball and not the man”!
And I hope that this is the beginning of a long running conversation about what our politics should look like, and what constitutes a good politician!
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 04:08 PMDC,
Rember the rule mate; the only fecking rule!
Take note of the latest addition in the category list!!
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 04:12 PMThe councillor decisions are questionable in my opinion.
Really i think those choices were more about who best used councillor.info. Just because a councillor uses these tools doesent neccessarily mean they are the best councillors.
Posted by on Oct 06, 2008 @ 05:43 PMTo all the begrudgers - you had your chance to nominate!
Posted by on Oct 07, 2008 @ 01:25 AMOn a more prosaic level (I’m not taking issue with the shortlists ;-)), will much be happening as early as 6pm? Might not get organised until closer to 7.
Posted by on Oct 07, 2008 @ 08:18 AM
