A biography for Ann Widdecombehasn’t been written yet.
“Car horns were invented to warn other drivers of your presence, not to express displeasure or greetings.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Some of the finest comedies have chosen the Church as its subject and would indeed make most Christians laugh, give or take the occasional wince as a barb goes home. I have very fond memories of 'Our Man at St Marks' and long for the day when it is released on DVD but I won't hold my breath.”
“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.”
“The postcode lottery means that the level of care you get differs hugely around the country, and the health service simply cannot meet every demand that is put upon it.”
“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.”
“I was still in parliament when the Labour government passed the Freedom of Information Act. As the then shadow home secretary I queried whether in some areas it did enough to open up the work of government to public scrutiny.”
“There is nothing like a long, breezy walk on Dartmoor to make me feel I have arrived in heaven. The beauty of creation is all around and I feel closer to the creator Himself.”
“After 23 years closeted at Westminster, where often all you can see out of the windows are other parliamentary buildings, I appreciate space, and I retired to Dartmoor to find it.”
“Actors and entertainers can become parliamentarians, so why should parliamentarians not become entertainers and actors?”
“We need less political correctness and more political courage.”
“I don't analyse myself.”
“Usually my Easter reading consists of 'Who Moved the Stone?,' which gets dusted off annually and read, often in one sitting, to remind me of the miracle of redemption, resurrection and life after death.”
“Almost anybody from the past will hold views discordant with the present.”
“I think a sense of family, of commitment to family, and of helping each other and standing by each other, are essential. I pity anyone who doesn't grow up with that.”
“Example and general milieu, once considered so important in the nurture of children, are sacrificed on the altars of the false god we call free choice but which imprisons us all in a collective moral paralysis and delivers an anarchy that the State itself shrinks from challenging.”
“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 state does not belong in bedrooms. So I'm not authoritarian. I don't say: 'You shouldn't do this, you must do that.' What I do say is that the state must have a preferred model, and the model that has served us throughout the millennia is marriage - a man and a woman in a union that is generally open to procreation.”