An Evening with Anne Widdecombe
Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:06 pm
I've just attended this at Bognor Regis Arts Centre.
I thought she was a bit of a Nazi and assumed I'd be seeing some kind of freak show. "Hey mummy, look at the bigot!".
First half was unbearable. She sort of did a stand-up comedy act. Weak material and with elderly people laughing in an affected way. (You know when people laugh at weak gags in Shakespeare play just to prove to those around them that they understood the joke.)
However the second half was a Q&A session was quite good.
Clearly to some extent she got to pick and choose what she spoke about and thus maybe hide any extreme views but actually I agreed with her about almost everything.
- Strongly opposed to the abolition of Advanced Corporation Tax (ACT) Relief
- Pissed off with knee jerk legislation - Dangerous Dogs Act - Gun Laws following Dumblane.
- Thinks prison is ineffective - figures 5 day 8hrs a day of education or work would be good prepration for release.
- Her biggest acheivement as minister - equalizing the male/female retirement age.
- Her biggest acheivement in general - Getting a guy out of a Morrocan Prison (It really hit home that power allows you to do good as well as bad.)
I've heard her quoted as denying climate change but she seemed to accept it to me, but did say that light bulb legislation was "Sweetening loch ness by throwing a sugar cube in.".
All seemed pretty reasonable.
She knew a lot about Prisons.
So on the basis of 30mins of questions I'd say she's not a nutter.
I thought she was a bit of a Nazi and assumed I'd be seeing some kind of freak show. "Hey mummy, look at the bigot!".
First half was unbearable. She sort of did a stand-up comedy act. Weak material and with elderly people laughing in an affected way. (You know when people laugh at weak gags in Shakespeare play just to prove to those around them that they understood the joke.)
However the second half was a Q&A session was quite good.
Clearly to some extent she got to pick and choose what she spoke about and thus maybe hide any extreme views but actually I agreed with her about almost everything.
- Strongly opposed to the abolition of Advanced Corporation Tax (ACT) Relief
- Pissed off with knee jerk legislation - Dangerous Dogs Act - Gun Laws following Dumblane.
- Thinks prison is ineffective - figures 5 day 8hrs a day of education or work would be good prepration for release.
- Her biggest acheivement as minister - equalizing the male/female retirement age.
- Her biggest acheivement in general - Getting a guy out of a Morrocan Prison (It really hit home that power allows you to do good as well as bad.)
I've heard her quoted as denying climate change but she seemed to accept it to me, but did say that light bulb legislation was "Sweetening loch ness by throwing a sugar cube in.".
All seemed pretty reasonable.
She knew a lot about Prisons.
So on the basis of 30mins of questions I'd say she's not a nutter.