Top 45 Ann Widdecombe Quotes

In my schooldays, I was Titch, Skinny and Freckles. These days, I answer to Karloff, Fatty or even Twiggy from my more sarcastic friends. If they called me Ann I should wonder what I had done to offend them.

My mother always said bringing me up was a tiring business, which I ‘believe. For instance, when we lived in Singapore, the Chinese staff used to leave their slippers at the bottom of the steps. Every night, I used to go and remove their slippers. I stopped being tiresome at about 14.

We have no blasphemy laws these days but with that freedom comes the responsibility which should always attend the exercise of free speech: truth, courtesy and an awareness of impact. It is the last of these which is so neglected by so much modern comedy.

The political classes are despised when they deal in sound bites, embrace tokenistic campaigns and feather their own nests while trying to please all of the people all of the time.

Actors and entertainers can become parliamentarians, so why should parliamentarians not become entertainers and actors?

Insult is in the ear of the listener. Statements of fact cannot be insulting unless you feel that the label applied indicates some failing, moral or otherwise, in yourself.

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.

It would be nonsense to try to suggest that somebody who tried to rouse 2,000 people to their feet – which is what I used to do at conference – doesn’t have any element of exhibitionism about them.

Of course Meghan Markle wasn’t driven out of this country by racism. It is a ludicrous claim and symptomatic of how ridiculous the must-be-offended-at-all-costs brigade has become.

Almost anybody from the past will hold views discordant with the present.

Some books are like an hors d’oeuvre – light, tasty and leaving you longing for the main course which is never going to come – and some are like Christmas lunch immediately after a cooked breakfast.

It is a truth universally unacknowledged at Westminster that there is life after politics.

I don’t have a problem with other people having different faith; my problem is if we confuse respecting that with surrendering our own faith.

I can’t hear rhythm.

Not even the severest critics of Jeffrey Archer can deny his style.

The E.U. is terrified that we might become a competitor on its doorstep and that is exactly what we should be.

I suspect my own journey to Brexit has closely followed that of Britain’s. I had doubts, then I decided we should stay in, then I had very serious doubts as our island began to sink under a tide of regulations and our government lost control of the immigration system.

Believing in God was something I took as much for granted as the air I breathed. Religion wasn’t something that came out of a box on Sunday.

The regime in too many prisons is one of idleness, and locking up someone from such a background in idleness virtually guarantees re-offending. Instead there needs to be a full day’s work every weekday in either the workshops or the education department or preferably a mixture of both.

It is a huge asset to law and order that serious or persistent criminals should be taken out of the society on which they prey. It makes life safer for the law-abiding and on the whole prisons are pretty good at containing those who have been committed to them.

The Arctic has huge glaciers, frozen waterfalls and floating ice. This is scenery on which man has left no mark, which has stayed unchanged for centuries, wild, bleak, hauntingly beautiful; it is a part of God’s creation we have made no effort to tame.

What I do not like is militant secularism, whereby anything is acceptable as long as it’s not Christian.

Britain must govern Britain and nothing less will do.

Parliament was an institution of enormous standing when I was aspiring to go in. It isn’t now.

The child in the womb has no voice but Parliament’s. Many MPs who voted for the 1967 Act did not think they were abandoning the unborn because they were fooled by the supposed safeguards. Now we know just how ineffective those safeguards are.

I do not mind if a PM or leader of the opposition is single but if he or she chooses to dispense with marriage despite living with someone and having children, then I think that shows a contempt for marriage which sends an unfortunate message.

The Royal Opera House? I once had the immense privilege of appearing there and was awed by the air of refinement of those seemingly ethereal beings who floated about in the highest echelons of musical accomplishment, effortlessly producing virtuoso performances in several different languages.

In the 1990s, while the Maastricht debate was raging, I was a minister in the Major government. Every single piece of legislation we proposed had to be scrutinised for compatibility with E.U. law.

Unfortunately, if the man who leaves the prison gates is just as likely or – as is sometimes grievously the case – more likely to offend as he was when he entered them, then we fail not only the individual but public safety as well.

Happiness is best defined by its antonym, which is less ‘unhappiness’ than ‘anxiety.’ Anyone who is not oppressed by intolerable worry or grievous pain is almost certainly happy, whether rich or poor, well or ill, successful or frustrated.

Cats, unlike dogs, are independent creatures. They do not need walking and are content to be alone all day, providing they are fed.

Commerce and politics do not go with royalty, full stop.

I always said it was my ambition to have a library – I have one – and my dream was to have a pool. Then ‘Strictly’ came along.

I am so used to seeing a blond in the mirror that I forget that for most of my life I was very dark. Old photos are still a bit of a shock.

I am not a natural dancer, not even a half way competent dancer.

I’ve never understood this business of ‘I could always have had something more.’ If what you had was good, then thanks be to God.

Gentle mockery or sharp satire aimed at Christians and their leaders have been replaced by abuse of Christianity itself.

I am not normally a fan of organised tours: few public figures are, feeling themselves objects of constant curiosity.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The Home Office is a vast department where business as usual means that something is going wrong and, given the nature of the business, the disasters rarely lack a high profile.

Car horns were invented to warn other drivers of your presence, not to express displeasure or greetings.

An MP is an MP whether male or female.

Cats are ideal for politicians. I had two when I arrived at Westminster, Sooty and Sweep, who had come with a flat I had bought six years earlier in Fulham from someone who was about to go abroad. There was a better offer ahead of me but she took mine because I would take the cats.

History is not merely a procession of people in fancy dress fighting wars. It is crucially the story of man’s evolution from grunting cave dweller to serious thinker, from cruelly retributive law to merciful law, from casual barbarism to care and compassion.

Well, I spent 23 years in politics, and bits of that were fun.