Each February, Channel 4 spends a fortune at Oddbins on mid-price champers as it hosts their annual Political Awards.
The party invite is quite a hot ticket, with the swanky bash hosted at Channel 4's lovely Richard-Rogers-designed Headquarters on Horseferry Road. Londonist has already snagged our invitation card and will be covering the event for you on February 11th. We're looking forward to sharing a glass of fizz and fighting over the last chicken satay skewer with George Osborne, although it's just a shame that we're unlikely to be hob-knobbing with Cheeky Girl (No.2) as she is no longer hob-knobbing her MP fiancé.
Our predictions? Well, we'd be shocked if the two big political success stories for 2008 aren't reflected in the prize-winners' list. Firstly, London's very own Bozza, of course. Love him or hate him, he scored an overwhelming victory in May when over a million Londoners voted for him. The second rising star belongs, surely, to Peter (Lord) Mandelson after his surprise return to UK politics. For both of these men, half of the political sphere is busy watching in awe as they make their mark. The other half is desperately waiting for them to trip up.
Fancy a say in one of the awards? All political geeks get the chance to pick the winning political faces of 2008 here. Particularly cone-headed political geeks can also influence the political book of the year here, with the best comments and reviews posted on the C4 site about the main political tomes of 2008. Cherie Blair will be wrestling John Prescott for the top spot (now there's a mental image and a half), both beating off outsiders Norman Fowler, David Cameron and Hugo Young.
See you on February 11th when the winners will be announced. Expect too much drinking, tears and boisterous politicians. The juiciest gossip, as ever, will be outside the building as losers congregate with the smokers to slag off the winners. Can't wait, can't wait!
Boris screengrab from Scorpions and Centaurs' Flickrstream
