Some of the reactions to Ann Widdecombe’s death last week showed that she was deeply admired across English society but there were some who hated her for her Catholic faith. Several prominent people felt that the outpouring of affection for Ann Widdecombe following her death last week needed to be qualified. They felt moved to tell everyone that, of course, they found her views so very disagreeable, but that no-one deserved to die this way.

How generous of them to state publicly that it really is a bad thing for a 78-year-old woman to die a violent death alone and in her own home. Would it have been a little more acceptable if the circumstances had been less unpleasantly tragic? Nobody should die “like this,” they said.

Many others were so vindictively vicious about Ms Widdecombe’s death that it seemed rooted in a diseased collective mindset that regards people who hold different views as sub-human. One prominent broadcaster felt emboldened to describe Ms Widdecombe in such sexist terms that they’d have been deemed unacceptable in a 1970s English social club. This chap described her as an ‘old maid’ and ‘a spinster’.

Yet those of us who had ever watched Ms Widdecombe or heard her during her political career or later as a television and radio pundit knew that she was possessed of a razor-sharp mind that could dismantle your arguments in seconds if you couldn’t properly back up your thesis. More importantly, those who knew her well, including many who fundamentally disagreed with her positions on faith and human morality, said that she was never anything other than kind and compassionate in expressing those........

© Herald Scotland