The previous winners of the Orwell Prize have been illustrious political writers.

The prize was founded in 1993 by Sir Bernard Crick who, through his long-standing connection with The Political Quarterly, had negotiated with them a guarantee of funding to launch and administer two annual Orwell Prizes for political writing – one for a book and one for journalism.

Previous winners of the Journalism Prize include Polly Toynbee, Timothy Garton Ash, Paul Foot, Brian Sewell, Matthew Parris and David Aaronovitch. Patrick Cockburn of the London Review of Books and the Independent clinched this year’s Journalism Prize.

Last year they awarded a blogging prize for the first time, which most deservedly went to ‘Nightjack’ – as a result of which the Sunday Times followed their unhealthy tradition of unmasking bloggers and he was forced to take down his blog in order to save his career as a policeman.

This year ‘Nightjack’ is returning as a judge for the award.

I woke this morning, completely gobsmacked to discover that I, gulp, sniffle, I would like to thank, gulp, please bear with me, sob, have been nominated for consideration by the judges. Just the nomination will do for me. I never expected to find myself on the same page as some of these people when my menopausal anger burst out onto a blog.

I, in turn, would like to nominate the following more worthy names.

Guido Fawkes for lighting the fire that even the most ungrateful continue to warm their keyboards at.

Old Holborn for having the courage of his numerous convictions.

John Ward for elevating the Prime Minister’s depression to the main stream media.

Guthrum for his unflagging dedication to the art of blogging.

Charlotte Gore for shaking off the tribal blinkers.

Traction Man for maintaining our interest in cold custard.

Jailhouse Lawyer for having courage on behalf of the numerous convicted.

Leg Iron for having increased every-one’s vocabulary.

Letters from a Tory for showing how to put the knife in politely.

Burning our Money for making money interesting and informative.

As they say in Ireland, vote early, vote often, and then vote again if you don’t get the right decision first time.

VOTE HERE