Ann Widdecombe
Birthday:
4 October 1947, Bath, Somerset, England, UK
Birth Name:
Ann Noreen Widdecombe
Height:
156 cm
Her father was a senior civil servant with the Ministry of Defence, and as he moved around the world Ann attended several schools, including the Royal Naval School Singapore and La Sainte Union Convent, Bath, before going up to Birmingham University (BA Latin 1969), and then Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (BA philosophy, politics and economics 1972, MA...
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Her father was a senior civil servant with the Ministry of Defence, and as he moved around the world Ann attended several schools, including the Royal Naval School Singapore and La Sainte Union Convent, Bath, before going up to Birmingham University (BA Latin 1969), and then Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (BA philosophy, politics and economics 1972, MA) She began her working life with Unilever in marketing 1973-75, before moving to London University in 1975, where she became the senior administrator. Ann left the University to enter parliament in 1987. In 1997 she famously accused Michael Howard, her political boss, of having "something of the night" about him, following a departmental dispute for which she took the rap. It seemed to have blocked any rise in his career - until he was elected leader of the Conservative Party and of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in November 2003. In 2001 she resigned from the shadow cabinet & decided not to run in the leadership election. Show less «
Mr Right never came along. And it was never a sufficient priority to go out looking for him.
Mr Right never came along. And it was never a sufficient priority to go out looking for him.
[on the then Home Secretary Michael Howard] "He has something of the night about him".
[on the then Home Secretary Michael Howard] "He has something of the night about him".
Television turns out a diet of swearing, drunkenness, drug-taking, shouting and screaming, abuse of authority, sex, criminality and provocat...Show more »
Television turns out a diet of swearing, drunkenness, drug-taking, shouting and screaming, abuse of authority, sex, criminality and provocative humor, delivered in Estuary English. That is before the watershed; after which it merely gets worse. Show less «
For years there's been an assumption that as society gets more civilised and doesn't have a death penalty, it's going to be a much gentler, ...Show more »
For years there's been an assumption that as society gets more civilised and doesn't have a death penalty, it's going to be a much gentler, kinder, more decent society to live in. Now look at the society we do live in as a result of all that thinking. It's a society in which children kill each other, the murder rate has absolutely shot up, you've got rampant paedophilia. That's the society which all this so-called enlightened thinking has created and it's because we've lost sight of one very fundamental fact. There is such a thing as evil and if you do not fight it, it will eventually triumph. Show less «
The only way you can interest people in politics is when they're faced with a real choice. When I had my first vote the world was divided in...Show more »
The only way you can interest people in politics is when they're faced with a real choice. When I had my first vote the world was divided into two conflicting political ideologies - capitalism versus communism. There was an enormous difference in this country between the Conservative Party and a socialist party. Young people today have never seen a socialist party. Blair (Tony Blair) and Brown (Gordon Brown) weren't about socialism, Foot (Michael Foot) and Kinnock (Neil Kinnock) were. It mattered to people who ran the country. Now they don't see that difference. They're not making decisions about political philosophy. Show less «
To fight socialism and solve seemingly insoluble problems. (On her reason for going into politics)
To fight socialism and solve seemingly insoluble problems. (On her reason for going into politics)
It was non-stop vulgarity. To record 30 minutes for the programme you have to film it for two and a half hours. And two and a half hours of ...Show more »
It was non-stop vulgarity. To record 30 minutes for the programme you have to film it for two and a half hours. And two and a half hours of Carr's sense of humour was more than I could stand. (On appearing on Have I Got News For You with Jimmy Carr) Show less «
Let's take the issue of gay marriage. I do not care tuppence what consenting adults do. It's not my business. The state does not belong in b...Show more »
Let's take the issue of gay marriage. I do not care tuppence what consenting adults do. It's not my business. The state does not belong in bedrooms. So I'm not authoritarian. I don't say: 'You shouldn't do this, you must do that.' What I do say is that the state must have a preferred model, and the model that has served us throughout the millennia is marriage - a man and a woman in a union that is generally open to procreation. Marriage isn't about two people; it is the basis for the family. That's why it's unique, and therefore I think society can say we're keeping marriage for a man and a woman. Show less «
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