by Tom Slater, spiked
The despicable response to her horrific death reveals a deep moral rot on the left.
So we’re all clear now? It’s okay to celebrate the death of an elderly woman, provided she is right-wing. It’s okay to jump on a mainstream news channel while her body is barely cold and talk about how she was a ‘spinster’, an ‘old maid’ and probably a virgin. It’s okay to call her a bigot, too. But that one probably went without saying.
[…] As Rory Sutherland has noted, Widdecombe also belonged to a fast-fading line of parliamentarians – from Tony Benn to Norman Tebbit to Dennis Skinner – who were bombastic, formidable and utterly sincere; motored by duty, principle and unflappable conviction. People who would not dream of meekly reading a speech from their phone, or dispensing lines to take in the media.
When they pass on, we lose more than just another public figure, who we may have loved or hated, agreed or disagreed with – we are losing a quality of politician which today’s culture seems all but incapable of replicating. Like a Second World War regiment whose ranks grow thinner with each Remembrance Sunday.
Which is what made it particularly despicable to see the usual suspects reflexively respond to Widdecombe’s death – we didn’t know then it might be a murder – with a mix of glee, mirth and casual derision. ‘Hurrah! Ann Widdecombe is strictly dead’, screamed a since-deleted article in the Socialist Worker. Veteran LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, in a since-deleted tweet, took the opportunity to lambast Widdecombe for opposing ‘every gay law reform in 30 years’, signing it off with ‘BIGOT!’.