Pessimistic lawmaker this country backed for prestigious recognition (5)

I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Times for the Times have:

no clue how the ‘pessimistic lawmaker’ reversed gives SOD [ah, thanks to Jack – it’s a reference to Sod of Sod’s Law], but before that we have KU (UK reversed). Other whimsical Crosswordland ‘lawmakers’ include Murphy and Parkinson.