Amongst the many awards handed out were one for Paul Aplin, the very worthy winner of the 'Tax Personality of the Year Award' for his work on getting the government to do a u-turn on bringing back filing deadlines.

McGrigors got a gong for being the best tax team in a law firm, and Graham Aaronson won best tax lawyer.

Even a journalist won an award, with Vanessa Houlder of the FT winning tax writer of the year. As a lowly tax hack, I found that encouraging, given the award is almost always given to advisers and specialists.

There were many other awards for firms, and most had reason to celebrate.

But back to Mike, who won the 'Lifetime Achievement' award. I should disclose an interest, in that I was Mike's guest last night, but even so, the award was the most unexpected and pleasing of the evening.

There are those who might argue that Mike likes the limelight and has a bit too much time for the media. Foolish names and foolish faces are often seen in public places, as the saying goes.

I'm not one of those. Instead I'd argue Mike uses his media profile to do huge amounts of work for taxpayers who write in to the national newspapers, answering queries in detail in often not hugely well-read parts of the paper. On top of that, he has an infectious enthusiasm and a love of new ideas. The tax world would be infinitely duller without him.

And just for the record, he said last night that, though he may have won the 'lifetime achievement' award, he doesn't plan on stopping any time soon.