Who made the most outstanding contribution to world peace? And who was the worst offender against good taste? The Independent asked the year's movers, shakers and trouble-makers for their nominations Compiled by Lena Corner

Moby Hero: It might be a bit obvious, but I would have to choose Bono from U2 for his work on debt relief for Third World nations. When a public figure has the level of success that Bono has enjoyed for such a long time, it's usually far too easy for that public figure to disappear into the miasma of petty self-involvement. The fact that Bono has used his fame in such a practical and constructive way is, in my opinion, quite admirable and laudable.

Moby Hero: It might be a bit obvious, but I would have to choose Bono from U2 for his work on debt relief for Third World nations. When a public figure has the level of success that Bono has enjoyed for such a long time, it's usually far too easy for that public figure to disappear into the miasma of petty self-involvement. The fact that Bono has used his fame in such a practical and constructive way is, in my opinion, quite admirable and laudable.

Villain: The Conservative members of the US Supreme Court. I won't bore you with the minutiae of domestic American politics, but suffice it to say that by handing the election to George W Bush, the Conservative members of the US Supreme Court have shown complete and utter disregard for the democratic processes upon which the United States are supposedly founded. It is worth pointing out, also, that never in the history of the United States has a president had less legitimacy than GW Bush. He lost the popular vote by 300,000, and actively suppressed the counting of the votes in Florida through the help of his brother (the governor), his brother's mistress (the attorney general, who also helped to run Bush's campaign ...), and the Conservative members of the Supreme Court (who were nominated by GW Bush's father ...). Given the very strange and disturbing circumstances of Bush's election, I find it almost impossible to acknowledge the validity of his presidency. History is going to judge the Bush presidency and the circumstances surrounding it in a very harsh and negative light indeed. And the Conservative members of the Supreme Court have done the United States, and, not to be too melodramatic, the world, a great and unjust disservice through their hypocrisy and partisanship.

John Peel Hero: George Burley the manager of Ipswich. I'm not a fully-fledged supporter, but it's my wife's team and they have brought her extreme pleasure over the past year, in what has been a rotten time for her medically. With only minimum resources they're currently lying third in the Premiership. They were only promoted at the beginning of this season and got there despite everyone's prediction of them languishing at the bottom and going straight back down again. It's a romantic story - Burley has an extraordinary ability to motivate his team and has been extremely clever at exploiting the transfer market - buying several players who weren't wonderful footballers and bringing out extraordinary abilities in many of them.

Villain: Michael Howard. He sprang back into my consciousness recently, when I heard him on the radio defending William Hague's recent pronouncements. It reminded me of exactly why it was we voted him and his party out in the first place and no matter how dissatisfied we may be with Tony Blair, the alternative is so much worse. A useful reminder.

Tony Blair Hero: Nelson Mandela came to the Labour Party conference this year and was as inspiring as ever. He is a truly heroic figure and an inspiration to anyone who believes in progress through politics.

Villain: Milosevic, the world is a better place without him in power.

Jeffrey Archer Hero: Steve Redgrave, because to win five in a row shows a degree of commitment, determination and talent unequalled in Olympic history. My all-time hero would have to be Horatio Nelson, because he combined great physical and mental courage and was a great lover of his country and a great risk- taker. I admire his discipline, hard work and determination, but it was perhaps his love of his country that I admire most. I like to believe I love my country in a similar way.

Villain: The Dome. I would have like to have seen the £750m spent on the Tube, to make a first-class system for Londoners which could last 100 years, rather than a tourist attraction lasting just one.

Naomi Klein Hero: Arundhati Roy. After winning the Booker Prize for God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy has spent much of her time fighting for social and environmental justice in India, most recently against the construction of dams along the Normada River. Ms Roy is doing much more than lending her celebrity to a worthy cause, she has made activism her full-time job. Her work is a challenge to all who believe that politics and art should be kept separate: the Normada Valley, Ms Roy argues, needs fiction writers to help articulate what will be lost when villages are submerged and hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. Her brave actions have landed her in jail, and she has also been accused of betraying her country.

Villain: Canada. Inspired by Arundhati Roy's traitorous acts, I'm nominating my own country in this category, after its scandalous behaviour at the climate change summit in The Hague. Most Europeans blame the United States for the collapse of the talks but though the Americans were inarguably the most powerful offenders, they were not necessarily the most shameless. During the summit, a coalition of 287 human rights and environmental groups handed out daily "fossil" awards to any countries that were proving especially obstructionist in the negotiations. Canada ended the conference with 17 fossil awards, more than any other country, including the United States It was Canada that wanted environmental credit for selling accident-prone nuclear reactors to developing countries, and also Canada which joined the US in demanding emission-reduction"'credits" for keeping a few trees still standing around our clear-cut forests. No wonder there are still a couple of Canadians stuck in The Hague, being unable to get home after publicly burning their passports.

Peter Mandelson Hero: Bill Clinton for all he has done to support the Good Friday Agreement and for always being available to all sides on the end of the phone. As President he truly made a difference.

Villain: Those who know who carried out the Omagh bombing, but for whatever reason are refusing to help the investigation by giving the information that would lead to prosecutions. Having talked to relatives in Omagh, I know how much this would mean to them.

Lord Winston Hero: Richard Rampton QC who conducted the David Irvine libel trial and defended the American historian Deborah Lipstadt. Rampton is my hero because he finally and absolutely exposed the lies that David Irvine had been telling. I really do think he shone out as a beacon of truth and justice in this matter.

Villain: This would undoubtedly be Yasser Arafat, because he was presented with the best-ever chance of a peace process from an Israeli Prime Minister, who attempted to do more for the peace process than anybody ever before, and was offered all sorts of ways to move forward and to try and promote the well-being of Palestinians and Israelis living together, and I think Yasser Arafat sacrificed that chance for political ends.

Harold Pinter Hero: Mumia Abu-Jamal, for his dignity, lucidity, defiance and endurance on Pennsylvania's death row over 18 appalling years.

Villain: NATO, for their humanitarian bombing of Serbia and the murder of thousands of innocent people (mainly children) in Iraq.

Ann Widdecombe Hero: I nominate Father Michael Seed, a priest at Westminster Cathedral, for recognising the true meaning of the Millennium by erecting a gigantic cross outside Westminster cathedral. I feel very strongly that this is how the Millennium should be celebrated.

Villain: Jack Straw for letting out even more criminals before the end of their sentences and thereby creating more victims of crime in the community.

Nasty Nick Bateman Hero: Bob Geldof, for highlighting the issue of Third-World debt so effectively and successfully this year.

Villain: Darren from Big Brother, because he got away with so much, when he's done so little. He's portrayed as being so nice but he's just walked out of an AIDs campaign.

Will Self Hero: JG Ballard, because he published his umpteenth novel this year and continues to produce the most trenchant and effective critique of the era and remains the most important contemporary British writer.

Villain: Tony Blair, because he continues to be the most facile of thinkers and the most frebrile of leaders. He simultaneously manages to be a wet Q-tip of a man, and an authoritarian control freak.

Howard Jacobson Hero: I have to go back about 20 years for the last time I had a hero. He was the high court judge who didn't know who The Beatles were. Any man is a hero to me who doesn't know the name of any TV star, rock star, or film star.

Villain: Anybody who is involved in the publication of lists of famous people and how much they earn. We're living in a country which is being made very ill by the triviality of celebrity and envy for their riches.

JG Ballard Hero: Helmut Newton, because he keeps the flag of the male imagination flying strongly in a hostile breeze. Newton is the greatest figurative artist working today.

Villain: Hillary Clinton, because I fear we are going to see a great deal more of the lady. She is the essence of self-promotion, ruthless ambition and a complete absence of political ideals.

Julien Macdonald Hero: Kylie for being absolutely beautiful and a fantastic entertainer.

Villain: Keith Chegwin for inflicting his obese body on the nation.

Fay Weldon Hero: Elton John, because he is the ideal consumer and these days, in our consumer society, spending is the greatest good. To spend and spend on frivolities keeps the wheels turning. Useless expenditure these days is most valuable and anyway, he sings a good song.

Villain: Richard Branson, because his Virgin trains are getting better, but his fare policy makes you feel like the world has gone insane. A first-class ticket from Birmingham to London is £116, for which EasyJet can get two people to Cannes and back. You can sit opposite someone who has paid £106, and next to two other people who have paid £25. Yet you would all occupy the same seat in the same degree of comfort or otherwise.

Anne Robinson Hero: Giorgio Armani, for obvious reasons.

Villain: Cherie Blair's fashion adviser. Did you see the outfit she wore to the State Opening of Parliament?

Stephen Bayley Hero: It has got to be the consistently delphic, and appropriately enigmatic, Simon Jenkins. A Prince of Evasion, Simon was (and this may not be quite the right word) the intellectual sponsor of the wretched Dome, but has magisterially avoided any form of culpability for its lowering mediocrity. To emerge from a stinking, toxic bog of ignominy and shame with your righteousness intact, and smelling of the thousand best churches, is heroic in fact and in deed.

Villain: Anonymous, but nonetheless represents a shocking threat to polite society. It is Cherie Blair's personal shopper, an assassin of decorum armed with a deadly Harvey Nichols charge card. Never in the field of aesthetic conflict was so much spent to so tragic an effect. Mrs Blair, please dress down.

Greg Dyke Hero: Denise Lewis, because I was there in the Olympic Stadium in Sydney that September night, when she won the gold medal for the women's decathlon. For once the stadium was half empty - torrential rain had meant thousands had gone home. The crowd that were left were disproportionately British, waiting to see if Denise could overcome her injuries and win. The final race finished and we were left desperately trying to work out if she had done enough, then came the news. She celebrated, we celebrated. She cried, we cried. She received the gold medal and we cried again. There aren't many nights like that.

Villain: My villain is the whole of the Real Madrid football team who knocked Manchester United out of the European Champions League. It wasn't Roy Keane's fault!

Fergal Keane Hero: A young single mother, Dawn Sutcliffe, who lives on the Lincoln Green housing estate in Leeds. I met her while filming a series on Britain for BBC1 last year. The estate has many social problems - drug addiction being a huge one - but Dawn was determined to protect and nurture her kids. She sat down religiously every night to do their homework with them, and spent every spare moment she had planning for their future. To sit watching her work out her weekly budget really induced humility. Every penny she has is accounted for - there is no spare cash. But the house has the feel of a place where people are loved and cared for. I think Dawn represented the millions of women who confound the stereotype of "welfare mothers". Brave, self-reliant and every inch a hero.

Villain: The wretched General Pinochet. It goes against the grain for me to denounce someone who is old and sick. I don't feel entirely comfortable doing so. But having spent some time in Chile talking to the victims of his rule, I have no doubt that he is the villain of the year for me. The most encouraging thing is that the people of Chile have decided to face the unpalatable truths of their own past and contemplate putting him on trial. All the dead and the lost surely meant something. I have a neighbour who fled Chile during the Pinochet years. It has been nice seeing him smile at the final prospect of justice.

Dreem Teem's DJ Spoony Hero: Ali G, because he's just hilarious - great British comedy on another level. Ali G may not go on forever, but there's potentially a lot more to come from Sacha Baron Cohen - he hasn't rinsed it out yet. Tom Ford is another hero, because he's just turned Gucci round - he's got the blend of exclusive fashion and street credjust right.

Villain: Alex Ferguson and Manchester United for not giving anyone else a chance of winning anything they enter.

Johnny Herbert Hero: Steve Redgrave, to keep on winning for that amount of continuity over that many years is absolutely amazing. It shows a good strength of character, plus he's a good role model for the younger generation - that's the kind of sportsman we really need.

Villain: Mike Tyson, for being the most unsportsmanlike professional. After everyone had done all that mucking about to get him into the country, when lots of people didn't want him here, he behaved very badly. During his fight, at the end of the first round, when the referee jumped into the ring, he refused to stop fighting and then he went on TV and said he was going to rip Lennox Lewis' heart out. It's unbelievably embarrassing to be a sportsman when you see people behave like that.

Erik the Eel Hero: Myself, because I show so much spirit and courage.

Villain: Alto Boldon, the olympic sprinter from Tobago, because he comes across as very arrogant.

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson Hero: Buzz Lightyear, because he always saves the day.

Villain: Cruella De Ville, for some very obvious reasons.

John Rocha Hero: Bono, for his brilliant efforts this year on behalf of the Jubilee 2000 World Debt campaign.

Villain: The floods, the torrential weather, which caused so much damage, destruction and upheaval for so many people.

Ulrika Jonsson Hero: Mr David Anderson Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Guys Hospital, who performed the first surgery on my six-day-old baby to give her a chance of life.

Villain: Anne Robinson. Goodbye.

Jake and Dinos Chapman Hero: Our heroes are the mutants.

Villain: Our villains are the Nazis.

Anita Roddick Hero: Charlie Kernaghan, the driving force behind the National Labour Committee, who has done more than anyone to expose the truth of sweatshop labour and the lie of globalisation. I was re-radicalised by the protests against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle at the end of 1999, and that set the tone for the year.

Villain: The WTO - I didn't see global trade getting any fairer during the year.

Terence Blacker Hero: Sir Malcolm Bradbury. By pioneering the concept of the serious creative writing course, Sir Malcolm broke down barriers and helped demystify the craft of writing. He was that rarest kind of writer - one who was glad to share and give of his talent to younger generations.

Villain: Chris Tarrant. Theme of the year was institutionalised greed, as represented by the National Lottery and promoted by government and big business. The grinning show-host, and his demeaning TV programme, is as good a symbol of this spiritual decline as any.

Philip Hensher Hero: The Italian chef who responded to the Queen being prissy about not eating garlic by giving her goat instead.

Villain: Baroness Young, for her campaign to stop the age of consent being lowered, pretending to be protecting people's interests, when actually she was just imposing an out-of-date and inappropriate moral attitude on them and abusing the purpose of the House of Lords to do so. It whipped up a great deal of homophobic attitudes all round.

Keith Allen Hero: Jean Tigana, the manager of Fulham Football Club, because he has managed to introduce to the average footballer the idea of intelligence both on and off the field, and in so doing has utterly undermined 300 years of base English culture.

Villain: The negotiating team for America who were sent to the World's Environmental Accord, for managing to put a block on every move that was presented to try and make the world a better, cleaner place to live in. The idea that you should be made to buy fresh air is outrageous.

Jilly Cooper Hero: Lady Mary Fretwell, She's very beautiful and very funny and has fretted in the most enchanting way about passports for pets and made all the Cabinet ministers roll over for her. She managed to get it through, and people have been trying to do that for decades.

Villain: Jörg Haider, because he's an absolute bastard: he's making the Jews' life a misery, the artists' life a misery and anyone else with slightly liberal ideas. He's terrifying, an absolutely awful man.