THE JUDGES' SEVENTH CABINET
Prime Minister Deputy PM Chancellor Foreign Lord Chancellor Home Education/Employm Environment Leader of Commons Culture Cabinet Office International Develop Social Security Agriculture Leader of the Lords Trade/Industry Health Regions Defence Transport Treasury Chief Sec	Yvette Cooper Lady Thatcher Ali G Rhodri Morgan Tony Blair Martin Johnson Charles Kennedy John Prescott David Blunkett Tommy Sheridan Michael Ancram Michael Portillo Kenneth Clarke Henry McLeish Britney Spears Harry Potter Stella McCartney Alan Milburn Nigella Lawson John Reid Clare Short	62 50 32 32 31 30 30 29 27 22 20 20 18 18 18 17 16 15 15 14 14 530

If it carries on like this, she will have to be made president for life: for the second round running, Labour's Yvette Cooper emerges as the highest-performing player in our Fantasy Politics competition, and with exactly the same number of points as she was awarded a fortnight ago. How does she do it? The answer is that Cooper, almost alone in the government, manages to touch on issues that concern more than half the population (that is, women). With a cumulative score of 326, she now seems certain to emerge as the overall winner when the final round is completed just before the election on 7 June. Only the exposure of some enormous scandal (an underpaid and overworked nanny who is also an illegal immigrant?) can now stop her.

But how will she cope with the cabinet she leads at the end of this round? Not only does she have to contend with that well-known pugilist John Prescott - whose two jabs in north Wales were considered by four out of five judges to have done him nothing but good - she must also contain the England rugby union captain, Martin Johnson, sent to the "sin bin" for punching an opponent as his Leicester Tigers team won the European Cup. Moreover, she has Margaret Thatcher swinging her handbag as deputy PM and that old bruiser Kenneth Clarke smouldering away in the social security department.

In this round, several front-bench politicians enhanced their positions. Tony Blair was thought to have handled the various crises of the Labour campaign with aplomb, while David Blunkett was the subject of an adulatory profile in the Sun. Michael Portillo was consistently impressive: making a lovely, fragrant picture at the Chelsea Flower Show; scoring a few hits on Labour over the national insurance ceiling; and sounding thoroughly authoritative (if utterly incomprehensible) on why the exchange rate of the yen proved that the UK shouldn't be in the single currency. Michael Ancram was marked up for the best soundbite after Blair's now notorious opening speech of the campaign: "it will be hard to rebut; there's nothing there to rebut". And Charles Kennedy, despite travelling in an ungreen private jet, had his best round to date, winning points for a Lib Dem manifesto that was widely acclaimed as honest and consistent.

Other prominent politicians fared less well as the campaign got under way. Alistair Darling, hitherto Labour's Mr Reliable, had a bad press conference on the national insurance issue. Jack Straw's long mission to outflank the Tories on crime and immigration seemed near to disaster after the police had heckled him and the public (according to one poll) had decided that it didn't really mind about asylum-seekers after all. Mo Mowlam, supposedly Labour's best campaigner, left for America. Robin Cook was shown a yellow card for invisibility. And William Hague? Well, the less said the better. Among the celebrities, Ali G did best after his show was judged the best comedy at the Bafta awards and after Radio 1 listeners had voted him as the person they would most like to have as PM. Nigella Lawson makes it into the cabinet after some television critics rated her performance with melted mozzarella as the most erotic thing they had ever seen. Britney Spears was praised by the judges for sending a "good luck" message to Blair's press secretary, Alastair Campbell. His own scores in our game - down again this round for spending too much time in Millbank and not enough on the road - suggest that he needs it.

The two Richards - Branson and Desmond - continued to stack up heavy minus points. The judges considered claims that the former deserved credit for ensuring that the Virgin train taking people to the Labour manifesto launch had arrived on time. But they finally agreed that the incident had just drawn further embarrassing attention to the chronic lateness of Virgin trains. Desmond, the owner of the Express newspapers, achieved the rare feat of driving a Fleet Street editor to make a principled stand. John Humphrys continued a more gentle slide into minus territory. The judges felt that his style of aggressive interviewing may be going out of fashion. Several bonus players who had done well in previous rounds (partly because bonus players score double) were off the pace this time. Ken Livingstone, for example, seemed unsure of his role in the election, and confined himself to a rather feeble newspaper article on the importance of re-electing Labour. Tommy Sheridan, equally feebly, said he did not expect his Scottish Socialist Party to win any seats, but he still got enough points to make the cabinet.

Yellow cards for inactivity were issued to Michael Meacher, Angela Browning and Archie Norman, as well as to Robin Cook. A further round of invisibility and they are out of the game, regardless of their previous scores. The Tweenies, having already received a yellow card, were this time sent off.

The winning cabinet (that is, the highest-scoring cabinet) from those submitted by readers will be announced next week. A choice between litre bottles of Plymouth Gin, Longmorn 15-year-old Single Malt and Bulleit Bourbon await the lucky cabinet-maker.

The judges meet again on 5 June, two days before the general election. This will be their final meeting. The scores for that round, as well as the final cumulative scores, will be published in our special post-election issue, dated 11 June and on sale from Saturday 9 June. A grand prize goes to the reader whose cabinet gets the highest cumulative score over the full eight rounds of the game.

To see the first judges' cabinet click here. To see the second judges' cabinet click here. To see the third judges' cabinet click here. To see the fourth judges' cabinet click here. To see the judges fifth cabinet click here. The judges sixth cabinet is here