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Slugger Awards: Politician of the Year…

Mick Fealty on January 12, 2011, 3:02 pm

| Readers 8

And the almost last category (I’m holding campaign of the year back so we have a bit more time to roll at this one), is Politician of the Year. Overall this is the most senior award, open to Northern Irish politicians at all levels of government, and assemblies. Past winners are Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness. There are reasons why either one of those might win, but I’d encourage people to look for the new, the unexpected. – Sammy Wilson …

Slugger Awards: Constructive Opposition…

Mick Fealty on January 12, 2011, 8:21 am

| Readers 3

‘Constructive opposition’. Now there’s a term to conjure with. Opposition of any kind is tough in Stormont, where most decisions are taken within cabinet at Executive level. But constructive opposition where politicians have pointed to flaws, whilst offering practical alternatives is crucial to the credibility of the institutions. So far we have: – Brian Wilson, for punching above his weight and avoiding populism. – The 2010 Group – John Dallat for the Public Accounts Committee work into NI Water. – …

Slugger Awards: Creative engagement

Mick Fealty on January 11, 2011, 7:20 pm

| Readers 4

Now, we head on to an award primarily aimed at public bodies. ‘Creative engagement’ – For the organisation that has most effectively built a positive consensus behind the need for some form of practical change or collective action. Given the atrocious record of government consultation (Stephen Nolan’s making hay just now the no show of the draft budget. I’m on my way to the exit gate the airport, so you’ll have to start from scratch just now… Mick FealtyMick is founding …

Slugger Awards: Political Journalist of the Year..

Mick Fealty on January 11, 2011, 1:43 pm

| Readers 24

Okay, we’ve a bit of a backlog here to get moving on, so forgive the volume of awards related posts about to hit your screens… Next up is our top award for political journalism… Mentioned in dispatches so far are: – Alan in Belfast (Alan in Belfast) – Eamonn Mallie (Downtown Radio, the Mallie Files) – Suzanne Breen (Sunday Tribune) – Jamie Delargy (UTV) – Martina Purdy (BBC) – Stephen Nolan (BBC) – Ken Reid (UTV) – Sam McBride (News …

Slugger Awards: Up and Coming Politician

Mick Fealty on January 10, 2011, 3:26 pm

| Readers 7

Okay, this an opportunity to talent scout the talent of the future. This year there is a large new intake of co-opted MLAs, so there ought to be some good candidates to pick from. Past winners have been Naomi Long and Dawn Purvis both of whom went on to do bigger things. Nominations so far include: – Conall McDevitt (MLA, SDLP) – Simon Hamilton (MLA, DUP) – Raymond McCord Senior (Unelected, no party) – Colum Eastwood (Mayor of Derry, SDLP) …

Slugger Awards: Building trust and credibility in politics

Mick Fealty on January 9, 2011, 2:02 pm

| Readers 2

Today’s focus is on the ‘’ Award, rather than relying on blind tribal faith, by engaging directly and openly with communities or constituency groups. It also might include participatory initiatives, and admitting limitations or even failures.

Slugger Awards: Thinker and Explainer

Mick Fealty on January 8, 2011, 11:47 am

| Readers 4

Right, just to keep things rolling over the weekend, on this thread we’d like your nominations for the ‘Thinker and Explainer’ Award. This is aimed primarily at public bodies who adopt “a conversational approach to public policy – rewarding organisations that have sought to make policy issues understandable to a wider audience, thereby increasing the capacity to participate.” So far we have just two in this category. We really need to bump this number up before Thursday’s Big Political Breakfast, …

Slugger Awards: Best investigative journalism…

Mick Fealty on January 7, 2011, 3:26 pm

| Readers 4

This time next year we hope Trevor Birney’s The Detail website will be up and running, but for now most of the nominations we have so far are well deserved players in the more conventional mainstream media. Remember we’re building up a long list which will be shortlisted at the The Big Political Breakfast next week, so keep the suggestions coming along with your reasons. In this category we have just three (remember there is a separate political journalist of …

Slugger Awards: Challenging your own community…

Mick Fealty on January 6, 2011, 2:13 pm

| Readers 3

Okay, we are going to be shortlisting nominations for all the Awards categories at the Big Political Breakfast at the Europa next Thursday (there are still some few places left, but you’d need to book soon), so let’s give them something to bowl at… In this category, which started off as a media category is now well populated with politicians, we already have: – Dawn Purvis for her high profile resignation from the PUP… – Basil McCrea for his appearance …