Ann Widdecombe showed more tolerance than her vilifiers ever did

Those who celebrate murder have forgotten what it means to be human.

Few would deny that the internet both creates and amplifies bad behaviour. In the wake of the death of Ann Widdecombe, I made the mistake of browsing through comments on Facebook. Apparently, for some, the brutal murder of an elderly woman is cause for celebration. I had not realised that I was acquainted with so many sociopaths.

In truth, Facebook is a platform that I rarely use, which means that most of my listed ‘friends’ are those who I knew in the pre-woke era, those halcyon years before so many succumbed to ideological fanaticism. Much of the glee seemed to be coming from comedians and actors I once knew or worked with and who probably wouldn’t speak to me today because I’ve been such a vocal critic of their culture war. Reading the comments, I found myself wondering: were these people always so bigoted and lacking in basic humanity, or have they been curdled and poisoned by the political climate of the day?

Many others have experienced something similar. The actor Frances Barber, a lifelong Labour voter, posted this week on X: ‘Reading, reluctantly the comments from my so-called friends “on the Left” re Ann Widdecombe. I want absolutely nothing to do with you’. Increasingly, traditional leftists are noticing that there is a serious problem on their own side: a marked lack of empathy when it comes to political opponents.

It is disturbing to see so many of my former friends abandon their humanity for the sake of political point-scoring. If they ever had a moral compass, it has now surely been shattered beyond repair. But why would they do it? The answer might lie in the preponderance of groupthink among those working in the arts, a desperate need to be seen to have the ‘correct’ views in order to advance their careers. It just so happens that the fashionable set of opinions at the moment are those that are anti-liberal and inhumane, gilded with a sheen of counterfeit virtue.

I would like to think that had I asked any of these people, back in the Before Times, whether they could imagine themselves cheering on the killing of a total stranger simply because she did not share their political views, they would all have rejected the possibility. I find it difficult to believe that I could have maintained relationships with anyone who thought otherwise.

I am therefore inclined towards the conclusion that they have simply become so tied to their tribal identity that anyone outside the group has, in their eyes, been delegitimised to the point of irrelevance. They can celebrate Ann Widdecombe’s death in good conscience because those who disagree with them are evil and therefore undeserving of human sympathy. As I have said many times before: ideology rots the soul.

This is not to say that this does not likewise apply to elements on the right. There have been some appalling comments this week regarding the murder of pro-Palestine activist Jamey Carney by a migrant she had welcomed into her home. While some have argued that the victim’s naivety had put her at risk, a handful of online ghouls have taken pleasure in her demise as proof of her ‘suicidal empathy’. The idea that anyone deserves to die for their beliefs is as repugnant as it gets.

There is, however, an important distinction. Whereas the gloating over the murder of Jamey Carney has largely been confined to the cranks on the right, the equivalent response on the left to Ann Widdecombe’s murder has come from both the crankish and mainstream elements. That is to say, when it comes to the left it is becoming harder to dismiss this as simply the egregious behaviour of a handful of extremists. The acquaintances of mine who are revelling in Ann Widdecombe’s death are not crazed antifa cultists, but recognisably ordinary Labour supporters. And this is the worrying aspect.

I was genuinely shocked by the gloating and victim-blaming on the mainstream left after the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Similarly, in the aftermath of the killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, his killer Luigi Mangione was elevated as some kind of hero. More recently, leftists have been tying themselves into contortions to justify the actions of the pro-Palestine activist who struck a female police officer in the spine with a sledgehammer at the Elbit Systems facility in Filton.

Again, I am not surprised when extremists on both sides of the political spectrum reveal their moral bankruptcy. But it is remarkable to see it coming from those who claim to be moderates who are ‘on the right side of history’. I find such hypocrisy and doublethink difficult to comprehend. Anyone in doubt about the extent of the vitriol need only search Ann Widdecombe’s name on Bluesky, a forum for left-leaning social media users that has arguably become the most toxic of all online platforms.

It goes without saying that those who are currently dancing on Ann Widdecombe’s grave have no idea who she really was. They have concocted a monster of their own imaginations: a folk devil for their tribe. Had they known her personally, they would have realised that she was kind and generous and, unlike the bigots who denounce her, always willing to hear out the other side and engage them in discussion. This is what she said to me during an interview back in 2021 when I asked her about the rise in political tribalism:

‘I have friends from all parts of the political spectrum. I have Catholic friends, Anglican friends, atheist friends, you know, I have gay friends and straight friends and old friends and young friends. And I cannot imagine saying to any of them, I don’t want to be friends with you anymore because you think this. I’d rather discuss why they think that, or if I think they’re too emotional about it, I’ll say, look, let’s just move on and talk about something else.’

How many of her detractors could say the same? During that interview we also discussed the myriad ways in which she had been mischaracterised. She specifically addressed the myth that she had wanted pregnant women in prison to be chained to their beds while giving birth, an absurdity that is currently being rehashed by the online trolls. I was able to challenge her on the issues where we disagreed in the spirit of healthy debate. She had far more integrity and tolerance than any of those cruelly revelling in her death.

For many, politics has become a sacred component of personal identity, with the result that they have forgotten that those who take a different view are human beings with a right to dissent. Those who misinterpret disagreement as evidence of evil are narcissists and authoritarians who expect the world to bend to their will. For all their infantile loathing of Ann Widdecombe, they have a lot to learn from her.

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