ONCE again my heart got a thorough workout with the England lot and for most of the semi-final, our ‘It’s Coming Home’ dream reigned, but it wasn’t worth the despair when ‘it’ happened. it was nice to see John Stones on the pitch being quality and I’m sure he’ll be signed to a Premier League club immediately after his performances.
BUT will they stop saying he’s from Sheffield. He is NOT. John Stones is a Barnsley lad. Penistone is not in Sheffield whatever they say. And that is the hill I will die on.
Bonnie Tyler dying last week set my head down Memory Lane as Total Eclipse of the Heart had just come out when I went to uni.
I had bigger hair than Bonnie back then and it was well over half a lifetime ago but every time I hear that song I’m back in Exeter thinking how the four years stretching before me seemed like an eternity.
But the death of Ann Widdecombe has knocked me sick.
No I didn’t agree with everything Ann said, she had many contentious views but she was a deeply religious woman and those beliefs were tied to her faith and her right to have.
A lot of rubbish has been written about her of course, she wasn’t anti-gay for a start, some of her closest friends were gay men.
I thought she talked a lot of sense on some issues too and I admired her as a formidable woman who wanted to get more women interested and active in politics.
I admired her as someone who was passionate and brave and educated, tough as old boots, generous with her time and extraordinarily kind as reporter and novelist friends of mine have informed me. I admired her as a politician with a backbone because those seem to be thinner on the ground than ever.
She was committed to her causes, she debated courteously, she gave respect to people she didn’t necessarily agree with. People have every right to criticise her politics, she was an advocate of free expression herself, and you do not have to mourn her.
BUT to publicly and jubilantly rejoice at her death is despicable. Peter Tatchell, for instance, who has retracted his comments for which he is sorry.
No he isn’t, he’s just trying to wriggle away from of the backlash. Just because you can say something, doesn’t mean you should. Freedom of speech is not absolute, it has limits and consequences if it is used offensively and harmfully, especially on public platforms. It is the whipping up of hatred (often by people wearing their self-righteous ‘Be Kind’ badges) under the guise of ‘free speech’ which has most likely contributed to politicians in this country having to employ security to do their jobs. What an advertisement for a civilised society we are.
An elderly lady – someone’s valued friend, a beloved family member – lost her life in her in a horrific and violent way and she must have been terrified. What a special kind of low-life one has to be to have done that to her. And what has it achieved if the reason for this is that her opinions were not his? She should have been safe in her own home. We all should be. Elderly ladies are the most likely group to be killed by strangers and it brings the whole issue of the vulnerability of women to the forefront again. As if it ever went away!
I am desperately sad and angry about what has happened to Ann Widdecombe from a basic humanity view as much as anything else, and anyone, whatever their political bent, with a scrap of decency in their souls should be as well.
