Official portrait of Ann Widdecombe as a Member of Parliament.
Not only does the murder of Ann Widdecombe, which has now turned out to be terror-related after all, illuminate the harsh new reality of Britain’s political climate. It also represents a total collapse of trust between the public and the establishment, and means that Reform politicians, as well as others on the “far right”, rightly fear not only for their freedom of expression, but for their personal safety, because the left has for far too long been allowed to mock and dehumanise its political opponents without provoking any reaction. The same thing happened in the United States with Charlie Kirk. How many more politically motivated executions are we prepared to tolerate?
“The good hatred” has been allowed to flourish in Britain for a long time. In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder last week, we have seen numerous examples of precisely that. From comments such as “bigot!” from LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, to the appalling words of Heather Herbert, a trans woman and transgender activist, whose tirade shocked even many on the left. Herbert said it was “good news” that Widdecombe was dead, and hoped that she had been handcuffed to her bed while “screaming in pain” before she died. Herbert posted this on Bluesky, the left’s “kind” alternative to X, before Widdecombe’s death had been made public as a murder. It is ironic that Bluesky is not covered by the new legislation banning social media for children under the age of 16. Children are to be protected only from content on platforms containing unacceptable political opinions. Others have said that they think the murder is terrible, only to add in the next breath that they will not miss Widdecombe because they disliked her views on abortion or immigration.
Herbert is now under investigation by the University of Aberdeen, where he is employed as an internet programmer.
Susan Hall, leader of the Conservative Party in the London Assembly, has had enough of what she sees as the left’s hypocrisy. Speaking in the Assembly a few days ago in response to a motion from the Green Party, she said:
“I am furious. How on earth can you be such hypocrites? It is not us who call other people scum. I would not regard any of you as scum. I would never dream of using such a term. But it is used about Tories. And that’s fine, because we’re Tories. Comments like this come from the left all the time. But that’s fine, because you’re virtuous. Oh, you think it’s funny, don’t you?” (Hall addresses Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, editor’s note.) “And you think it’s fine because you’re so virtuous? Everything you say is acceptable, while everything that comes from the right is wrong. Well, let me tell you that I am absolutely sick of it. (…) The left, the far left, which the Greens belong to, supports demonstrations where people chant ‘From the river to the sea’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada’. But that’s acceptable because they’re on the left, and people on the left are more virtuous than everyone else. Let me tell you this: You are going to stop calling us scum. You are going to stop calling us racists without any basis.”
A divided country
People on the left are rarely criticised for demonising their opponents. This frustration over “two-tier Britain” has become increasingly evident in recent months. The most extreme example of this unequal treatment is the Henry Nowak case. Henry Nowak did not receive the help he needed after being stabbed because the police believed the attacker, who accused him of being racist, illustrating the priorities of the police: being a racist is considered worse than being a knife attacker. And when the police have to choose between a white British boy and a young man of another ethnicity, they automatically believe the non-white man. Henry Nowak was treated as a second-class citizen, and he is neither the first nor the last. We see the same pattern in the way freedom of expression—or the lack of it—is administered. Lucy Connolly, who was imprisoned over an unfortunate tweet, is one example. There are many, many others.
When people are treated unequally over time, they lose faith that the authorities have their best interests at heart. They lose trust in the police, who would rather investigate thought crimes than theft and violence, and in the justice system, which imposes harsher penalties on people who say the “wrong” thing than on rapists. They lose confidence in the system when it favours newly arrived boat migrants and other immigrants, who go to the front of the queue for housing and other social benefits, and when ethnic minorities are given preferential treatment in recruitment for vacant jobs.
Trust in the media has also all but disappeared. In the comment sections, people are speculating about a plot against Ann Widdecombe by the elite. They believe that fear of Reform succeeding at the next election has become so great that the establishment is now resorting to brutal methods, attempting to eliminate what it considers the “far right” by killing Reform politicians. The police were quick to describe the person they arrested as a “white British man”. If that proves not to be the case, we are told nothing further. They were equally quick to insist that the case was not terrorism. Few were surprised when they later had to admit that this explanation had been incorrect.
Security is essential
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has come under fire over a £5 million donation intended to fund his personal security. He has been criticised for accepting it, but when Parliament has refused to finance bodyguards for Farage, and when his colleague Ann Widdecombe is murdered in cold blood because of her political views, it suddenly becomes clear why such money is needed. Reform now promises protection for other high-profile Reform politicians. Penny Mordaunt of the Conservative Party has likewise spoken publicly about the death threats she regularly receives.
It is also time to recognise that the threat from the far left is at least as great as that from the far right, if not greater. Until now, Islamist terrorism has been a familiar phenomenon that, regrettably, we have become accustomed to. Left-wing extremism has simmered beneath the surface, but those of us who have paid attention to transgender activists and their rhetoric, and especially to the Charlie Kirk case, are hardly surprised if such a connection also exists this time. Communist material has reportedly been found at the suspect’s address. Whether this will now lead to a reckoning on the left, however, is unfortunately unlikely.
A prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy is that expressing one’s views should not entail a risk to one’s personal safety. People must be able to tolerate opinions with which they disagree. Freedom of expression is nothing more than an illusion if people no longer dare to say what they think for fear of reprisals. Ann Widdecombe herself put it this way in a speech at the Oxford Union:
“Nobody has the right to live their lives being protected from offence, or from insult, or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard of living in society. And if you really can’t take it, become a hermit.”
One can never compensate for hurt feelings by physically harming others. If that becomes acceptable, then we have already lost.