LONDON LETTER: Tis the season to be jolly and the Letter's usual nominating committee has reconvened to consider this year's British awards in an appropriate spirit of largesse and magnanimity. However we found it difficult to be as generous as we would have wished.
Despite having a strong (or at any rate, commanding) government, enjoying low inflation, unemployment and interest rates, the mood out there in Blair's Britain is strangely fractious, uneasy and apprehensive. This was evidenced, too, on the broader constitutional front in what has proved a roller-coaster year for the British monarchy.
The outpouring of public grief following the death of the Queen Mother, just weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, led to quite unexpected (at least as far as Downing Street and the BBC were concerned) national celebration of Queen Elizabeth's golden jubilee.
But the golden cloud of public approbation was cruelly dispersed in a torrential storm of protest, complaint and questioning about the queen's role in the collapse of the theft trail of Diana's butler Paul Burrell and the subsequent downpour of allegations about everything from male rapes to selling off royal gifts to what seems like a life of extraordinary indulgence at the court of Prince Charles.
With these developments in mind, the committee has decided to extend this year's awards beyond the normal confines of the palace of Westminster.
Tony Blair was the undisputed Winner of the Year in 2001 following his historic achievement of that unprecedented second full term for Labour. Prizes for early promise, however, are no guarantee of final distinction and success. With the jury still out across the broad range of the curriculum - on everything from the future of the A levels to top-up fees for students, hospital waiting lists, mixed signals on the war against drugs and mixed results on the war against violence in the playgrounds and on the streets - there is no prize this year for the Prime Minister.
Against that backdrop, the Winner of the Year should clearly be the leader of a buoyant and effective opposition. Alas, the quiet man of British politics instead wins The Wooden Spoon.
It was some achievement surely, after two weeks when Cheriegate had Number 10 on the run, for Iain Duncan Smith to preside over a further (and seemingly impossible) drop in the Conservative Party's poll ratings.
In consequence, the Man to Watch in 2003 is Kenneth Clarke, to whom the Tory right might finally turn in desperation if Mr Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown finally rule out a euro referendum for the life of this parliament.
Charles Clarke and Alistair Darling both staked a strong claim to be Winner of the Year. However since Education remains a nightmare and Transport one to be endured on a daily basis, the award goes instead to Estelle Morris who - with a humility quite uncharacteristic of this government - admitted she was over-extended and quit.
IDS is obviously an early nominee for Loser of the Year in 2003, while Stephen Byers entered a strong bid. In the end he was so evidently a loser that the committee, bored, chose not to risk reviving him with the oxygen of publicity.
Cherie Blair née Booth was also considered following the property deals-aided-by-serial-conman imbroglio. In true Christmas spirit, however, it was finally decided that an error of judgment was hardly a hanging offence for a prime ministerial consort. After all, as the brilliant Andrew Rawnsley observed the Tories might have observed, she had been living with a man widely considered a conman inside Number 10 for the past six years.
Peter Mandelson, too, was a candidate, though only briefly.
He might have been disappointed not to feature in either of Mr Blair's two enforced cabinet reshuffles, but he hasn't gone away, you know, and was firmly back inside the magic circle advising Cherie on her televised mea culpa. What a star (as Cherie might have e-mailed).
In the end, the gaze travelled from one palace to another and the prize was awarded to Prince Charles.
As the royal households congratulated themselves on the nation's evident devotion back in June, he might reasonably have sensed growing approval for his own choice of consort and anticipated the announcement of his engagement to Camilla Parker-Bowles.
However the Burrell fiasco and subsequent inquiry into events at St James's Palace, coupled with the revelation of a pampered prince - who thinks a fine servant is one who can successfully load his toothbrush - would appear to have put that intriguing constitutional development on hold.
Back to Westminster and the award for MP of the Year goes to Father of the House, Tam Dalyell, not least for his splendid outrage at the Spectator which named Tony Blair Parliamentarian of the Year and for his biting observation that Cherie's concern for her children was understandable - he just wished she'd spare a thought for the children her husband might soon be bombing in Baghdad.
The Most Consistent Politician of the year has to be Gordon Brown - not because of his proclaimed (and doubtful) fidelity to Prudence - but because of the sheer consistency with which he covets his neighbour's job.
Consistency has been a characteristic too of Home Secretary David Blunkett. Last year he won the Lord Brookebrough Memorial Prize for reinstating internment two years after Labour had abolished it.
Mr Blunkett wins the prize a second time for his renewed assault on ancient liberties, with plans to abolish the rule on double jeopardy (allowing people to be tried twice for the same offence) and reducing the right to trial by jury.
With talk of war and imminent terrorist attacks filling the air, our seasonal thoughts finally turn to disaster and the new Titanic Award which goes jointly to Iain Duncan Smith and David Trimble as they contemplate another Conservative/Ulster Unionist alliance. It is unclear who the captain will be but everyone has a pretty good idea what will happen to the deck chairs. Happy Christmas.