The MacNumpty Award Winners

Best Performance - Angus MacNeil MP

This award goes to Angus MacNeil, in a tight contest which saw Mohammed Sarwar and Independence First come close. When I suggested him, I made note of his role in the 'Cash for Honours' saga, and he's been described as an 'absolute hero' who has 'shown just what an individual parliamentarian can do in a very short period of time'. He's clearly impressed but he'll have to work hard (and be immensely lucky) to keep up the current standard.

Worst Performance - Colin Fox MSP

Colin Fox was winner (or should that be loser?) of this category. I cited his poor handling of the Sheridan affair. His other critics see him as a 'vote loser' who 'presided over the collapse of the Scottish Left when they were looking like becoming a real force' and 'set them back years'. If his campaign for next year consists of prancing around Glasgow in a Robin Hood costume again then the last few activists who are still in the SSP may as well pack up and go home.

The Comical Ali Award for Daftest Statement/Notion - Nicol Stephen MSP

Stephen gets this for his continued insistence that he will be First Minister after the May election, a notion that he himself managed to blow out of the water when he got drawn into the row over whether or not Labour should seek LibDem support for a third time. He was described as a 'non-entity that shouldn't be his party's leader, never mind FM', his comments were described as 'absolutely laughable' and he was advised to 'stop living in lala land'. This was even described as 'the only poll he can expect to win' by Scott2006. I'll be asking for Scott's lottery number predictions later on.

MacNumpty Awards: Comical Ali award

Jack 'If you want independence, you'll neglect our schools and hospitals' McConnell

Considering that nearly everything uttered by the Labour Party in the last few months has been a rant about the joys of the Union, you'd think he'd shut up before accusing anyone else of obsessing about the Constitution.

Alex 'We're going to win Dunfermline & West Fife' Salmond

The SNP were on course for a stunning victory in the Dunfermline & West Fife By-Election, according to Alex Salmond. They came third. If I start betting on the horses, I'll avoid his tips, I think.

Nicol 'I can be First Minister after the Election' Stephen

Firstly, the LibDems, are third in every recent poll, and on current figures are unlikely to the largest party in either the Parliament or the Executive. Secondly, even McConnell has charisma when compared with Nicol Stephen.

Mary 'I'm not a Tory - honest!' Scanlon

Scanlon did everything she could to hide the fact that she was a Tory during the Moray By-Election, despite having been a Tory Regional MSP since 1999. She even produced letters supporting her from independent councillors, which they didn't write, and sent them to people who they didn't represent. Oops.

Tommy 'MI5, the SSP and Rupert Murdoch are working together against me' Sheridan

Where to start? OK, so the editorial team at The Sun doesn't like him. I don't think Murdoch's even heard of him. Maybe MI5 are trying to subvert him, who knows? And yes, the SSP do seem to have a grudge against him. But all three of them? Together? In a pact? I've heard of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend', but come on!

MacNumpty Awards: Worst Performance

Malcolm Chisholm MSP

Leaving aside Edinburgh's rejection of stock transfer last year, Chisholm has presided over rejections of Labour's key housing policy in Stirling, Renfrewshire and Highland. His pleas for Council tenants to hand over control of their houses to an Association have a smack of desperation about them and you get the feeling that no one's listening anymore.

Annabell Goldie MSP

I suspect that Tories are considering that David McLetchie wasn't such a bad leader after all, even if he did fiddle his taxi expenses. Goldie is a good 'Don't rock the boat'-type leader, but with the election looming, rock the boat is exactly what she needs to do. She's making absolutely no impact and the Tories seem less relevant than ever to Scottish politics.

Colin Fox MSP

Colin Fox is here simply for his poor handling of the Tommy Sheridan saga. He seemed to sit back and do nothing while his Party descended into two rival camps, divided over support for his predecessor. Then, come the trial, he decided to follow the lead of Rosie Kane, Carolyn Leckie and Frances Curran, and attempt to stick the boot in to Sheridan. They picked the losing side, and he opened himself up to a challenge for his job from Tommy. There followed a series of interviews which made him sound like a man on the edge and the only reason he held onto his post is Tommy Sheridan's decision to form his own party. And take most of the SSP's activists with him.

Linda Gorn

The LibDems were in the Moray By-Election to win, apparently. To help convince us that this was the case, they did an unofficial poll (of which we know only their topline figures) which had them within 3% of Richard Lochhead. Then they decided to quote lines from the Northern Scot which seemed to show the paper declaring Gorn as the likely winner. Except, the paper never said that: it was quoting local LibDem figures, and the LibDem declaration that the paper had endorsed them simply antagonised the Northern Scot, who immediately sided against the Gorn campaign. And where did the Gorn come in the final result? A distant third.

Mike Russell

I had to think long and hard about this one, but decided that his decision to publish Grasping the Thistle when he did wasn't his wisest move. It was supposed to be a piece of radical thinking; it would have handed the Tories a boost if they'd capitalised on it better. Russell is supposed to be one of Scotland's premier intellectuals, and the work at first glance appeared to contain a good deal of independent thought, potentially embarrassing to the SNP in advance of the election. Except it had been edited by Alex Salmond, and Russell, an SNP candidate next year, was only too happy to cave in. He lost a lot of credibility with his Leadership bid in 2004, but he's lost even more now.

MacNumpty Awards: Best Performance

Mohammed Sarwar MP

Sarwar on this list for his work in helping to bring the three youths involved in the Kriss Donald murder to justice, and for his mediation in the Molly Campbell affair. The old adage is that it's not what you know, but who you know, and this year, Sarwar has used his contacts in Pakistan to help people in two very grim situations.

Angus MacNeil MP

He may only have been in the House of Commons since May last year, but MacNeil's impact has been immense. He's the one who has lifted the lid on the 'cash for Honours' scandal and not only could his actions damage the credibility of both Labour and the Tories, but they could end up leading to a reform of rules on party political funding. A place in history after just 18 months. Impressive.

Willie Rennie MP

During the Dunfermline & West Fife By-Election, the Liberal Democrats were facing meltdown. Charles Kennedy had been hounded out of the LibDem leadership despite his popularity with the public, and the candidates to replace him were hardly setting the heather alight. In fact, the only reason the party got any press at all was because the papers gleefully outed Simon Hughes and uncovered Mark Oaten's rent boy scandal. And in spite of all that, LibDem Rennie won the By-Election.

The Conservative group on South Ayrshire Council

They get a nomination for becoming the first Tory group to gain full control of a local Council in Scotland since the new Councils were elected. A combination of lucky circumstances - the collapse of the Labour leadership - and good timing - making their move to replace both the Council Leader and Provost while they had the clear numerical advantage - shows a political sharpness that seems to have been lacking in the Scottish Tory Party recently.

Independence First

The Holyrood Public Petitions Committee might have poured cold water on their bid for an independence referendum, but this group seems more organised and prominent than previous pro-independence umbrella organisations. Their march on 30 September shows potential, and the fact that they got speakers from the SNP, SSP, Greens and Solidarity shows that they're being taken seriously. We're going to hear more from them, I suspect.

Nominations ready

Well, folks, I'm off to France on Sunday morning, so now's as good a time as any to unveil the nominations for the MacNumpty awards. I'll also be putting these on the Our Scotland Forum in the Featured Blogs section along with a poll for people to vote on their choice for each of the categories. So if you want a say in the outcome, then now's the time to register with the forum!

Anyway, the categories are:

Best Performance
Worst Performance
The 'Comical Ali' award for Most Ludicrous Statement of the year

Nominations coming up!

The MacNumpty Awards

With the knowledge that this blog's first anniversary is coming up, and that it'll soon be the end of the year, now seems as good a time as any to introduce the First Annual MacNumpty Awards. But being the lazy git that I am, I'm going to ask most of you to do the hard work, by nominating your winners (and losers) in my two main categories: Best and Worst Performance. I'll put together a politically-balanced shortlist at the end of the month.

Also, if you fancy any other categories being introduced, drop me a line.