Guest Post – Our Misconstrued Perception of Feminism

I am very alienated by Ann Widdecombe

“Ann Widdecombe says she has stayed celibate for religious reasons.  The main reason being that God made her incredibly fucking ugly”
(Frankie Boyle)

Former Conservative Member of Parliament, and once a cabinet minister, Ann Widdicombe has stated that the Conservative government passing same sex marriage in England left her feeling “very alienated”.

Promoting her autobiography, “Strictly Ann”, in the Daily Telegraph, she stated that she felt angry with her party and gives the impression she felt very much left out in the cold.  She denies however that she was ever thinking of defecting to the controversial, right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP); “I’d rather form my own party than ever join UKIP. We could call it the Widdy Mob”.

Hmm, perhaps Ann, dear, or could it be you realised that as odious a party they are, given the way they are now trying to woo voters, there wouldn’t even be a place for you in UKIP?  You could have been election agent for Scotland’s sole UKIP Member of the European Parliament, David Coburn – who is openly gay.

Ann continues, “David Cameron just bulldozed the whole thing through, though it had never been in any manifesto or tried or tested.”  In the first sentence, Ann Widdecombe is correct.  The Same Sex Marriage Act was rushed through Westminster with indecent haste, and the result of that is that it has been shown already to have serious flaws.  This is why I dislike knee-jerk legislation. And while the Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Act took much longer, that is because the devolved Scottish Parliament took a great deal longer over it to make sure it was watertight and representative of all.

That does not however mean that England did not need a same-sex marriage Bill, and that did not need any manifesto promise to legitimise it.  Parliaments represent the people, all people, and given that there was a high enough public demand for same-sex marriage in England was reason enough to legitimise it.  Some politicians should remember that the public are the bosses, they are our servants.  They are in parliament to serve us – not the other way around.

And just how does one “try” or “test” same-sex marriage (answers on a postcard…)?  Does any government, anywhere on the face of the planet, try or test most legislation?  Of course, I do recall the days when Ms Widdicombe was a cabinet minister and the government she served did indeed try and test legislation; the Community Charge, aka the hated “Poll Tax” – which was tested in Scotland a full year before the rest of the UK.  Yet strangely enough, when Widdicombe served under that evil bitch Thatcher, I don’t recall her calling for the “trying” and “testing” of the controversial Section 28 (Section 22A in Scotland) of the Local Government Act 1988, which prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality and labelled gay family relationships as “pretend”.

Ann Widdecombe’s religious beliefs are well known, which of course is her right, and which I do not deny her.  What I do object, strongly, is the fact that her faith seems to be little more than a smokescreen to hide her own small-minded homophobia.  Widdecombe, who attacked the Archbishop of Canterbury in April over the issue of gay clergy, converted from Church of England to Roman Catholic in 1993; obviously prefering a church which actively protects paedophiles to one which accepts and supports adult same-sex couples (who also have the lowest incidence of child abuse) in loving relationships.  Remove the beam from your own eye first methinks, Ann.

And of course, aged 66, Ann Widdecombe boasts the fact that she has remained a virgin all her life.

Just a thought Ann, dear; if you ain’t going to play the bloody game, you have no right to presume to write the damned rules.