Inside the Lords: it's been a tough week
The death of my former Brexit Party colleague Ann Widdecombe has cast a shadow – and the response to it in some quarters has been shameful.
It’s been a tough week.
While England’s loss in the World Cup semi-final has received wall-to-wall coverage (and you can listen to the views of the AoI’s football fans about it here) many of us have suffered a loss that is much more profound: the death of Ann Widdecombe in horrendous circumstances has shaken many of us. It’s been devastating. It has also revealed an ugly underbelly in politics today: we’ve witnessed some sectarian nastiness aimed at Reform UK because, apparently, laying wreathes in memory of a friend and colleague is an example of opportunistically politicising her murder and/or distracting from talking about that £5million. Wherever you stand on Reform, this mean-spirited cynicism leaves a sour taste.
Meantime, it’s been disturbing that a fringe group of despicable #bekind progressive activists decided to either caricature Ann unkindly as some sort of batty spinster/battle-axe – or worse, celebrate her death, denouncing her as a bigot, along with ‘she had it coming’ vibes. This echo of the monstrous reaction of some to Charlie Kirk’s assassination expresses a new type of visceral hatred of political opponents that is a real problem for those of us committed to political debate. The shameful lack of empathy and just sheer unpleasantness is sadly far too commonplace in today’s polarised society. It’s a mood that the Battle of Ideas festival hopes to be an antidote to.
And there is hope: Ironically, to Ann Widdecombe’s credit, we can get a glimpse of how political disagreements can be played out in an ideal way: you can stand firm, be robust and uncompromising, and still inspire an outpouring of grief, love, admiration and respect from all sides of the political divide.
I was asked to write my own tribute by spiked, in which I stressed her ability to work with people despite political differences and without betraying her principles. You can read it here: Ann Widdecombe was formidable, generous and wonderful company. I also noted our shared commitment to free speech, which is why we should resist those calling for yet more clampdowns on social media in response to even the most brutal offline violence. Lucy Powell, deputy leader of the Labour Party – yes, she who characterised discussing rape grooming gangs as a ‘dog whistle’ – led the pack in parliament called for more civility in political debate (oh the irony) and for further action ‘to tackle hate propagated online’. I took this on in a brief House of Lords discussion on Ann.
On Talk TV earlier in the week, I discussed the whole issue of security for politicians and warned that we need to consider unintended consequences. Of course, we need reasonable measures for those assessed to be at greatest risk. Those sneering at Nigel Farage for taking the issue seriously should pause and take a reality check. However, in general, politicians are public servants, and the public need access to them, so I worry more broadly about a retreat from the public sphere driven by fear.
You’ll gather from the clip why Ann Widdecombe was far more complicated than any caricature. One issue that I never dreamt Ann and I would agree on was prison policy. As a former Conservative Party prisons minister, she was notoriously hardline. No early releases for Ann. My liberal attitude means I am more a prison-reform type, so I assumed we’d clash on that.
However, I was surprised when we discussed the issue just how committed she was to prison education and purposeful activity for prisoners, even if she believed more people should be locked up in the name of law and order. She was firmly supportive of rehabilitation, redemption and human dignity. She wanted a justice system that worked but that was humane not cruel. But that meant that she was also scrupulously fair and agreed with me that those imprisoned on the now discredited and abolished IPP sentence should be reprieved by the state. For those unfamiliar with the IPP scandal, this Substack has covered it a number of times. Here’s an explainer: Britain’s Forgotten Prisoners.
I spoke to families of IPP prisoners at a protest at the Ministry of Justice earlier this week:
I followed up the protest with a question on IPP to Lord Timpson, in which I managed to utter the statement ‘ANDY BURNHAM IS PERFECT’ – hardly! Burnham has just appointed Matthew McGregor as his new head of political strategy in No.10, a former head of one-sided Hope Not Hate, an organisation whose main aim seems to be to promiscuously label anyone critical of Labour or EDI-style identity politics as hate-mongers. That bodes badly for free speech. But here’s hoping Burnham may – just may – take on the cause of justice for IPPers at least:
More Inside The Lords next week. I’m hoping ‘Things can only get better…’