Rear of the Year

Who says we are politically apathetic as a nation? Why, there is a growing campaign under way to get Harriet Harman, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, voted Rear of the Year, one of those awards that gets as little publicity in The Economist and The Spectator as the Nobel Prize for Literature gets in The Sun.

Puerile nonsense of course but there would be a certain short-lived pleasure in Ms Harman getting the award, not just because it would irritate her but also because it would mark a brief departure from our nation's fascination with Heat magazine covergirls.

Winners of the women's prize in recent years include Rachel Stevens, Jennifer Ellison, Nell McAndrew and Charlotte Church (slightly worryingly, given that she was 16 when she won), while the men's booty, if that is an appropriate word, has been carried off by a Coronation Street pin-up and the winner of the Joseph reality show Any Dream Will Do. All boringly predictable.

No, a victory for Harman would prove that her equality agenda is well and truly marching on. It would be victory for unphotoshopped maturity and experience and a sign that we can considers matters higher than whatever is on the floor of the barber shop. And David Dimbleby to win the men's prize?