I ask this as a genuine question I'm intrigued about, not as an attempt to stir. Honestly!

From a personal point of view I'll nail my colours to the mast and say I'm with Sue Perkins, Matt Lucas & Marcus Brigstocke on this. I can't separate her from her opinions, and the rehabilitation of her as the nation's favourite eccentric Aunt leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I find her views on women priests, homosexuality, abortion etc etc entirely at odds with mine, and I spent a large part of the 90's vehemently disagreeing with her and all she stood for.

I just wondered whether people either don't know or don't care. Maybe it's just considered irrelevant. Me, I can't stand her.

Quite agree! On top of this I was shocked to find out Felicity is older than AW.

Now, now, easy there! That's not the intent behind my question...I'm more interested in her mind than her body!

Thanks for the reply & the agreement though

She became a councillor in 1976 and an MP in 1987 and remaind so until 2010 and was never defeated in 34 years. Therefore there must be a whole swath of people who agree with what she stands for.
So to answer your question, some supports of Ann agree with her, others agree to some of her stances, others still don't care and some only know her from SCD.

.

I'm a Socialist and can't stand her politically but I'm enjoying her performances on SCD...they're soo amusing imo and I hope she reaches the final.

The rampant druid is an avid supporter. Don't care about her views either.

I'd agree with that.

Though what frankly baffles me more is why anyone - anyone at all - ever picks up a phone to vote for anyone on any reality telly show.

Traitor! C'mon hold true to your Socialist beliefs. She's a witch & deserves to burn in eternal damnation!

On a more curious note....how'd you manage to get "inactived" within the space of an hour?! Wtf have you been up to, and what impassioned arguments have you been involved in? I need to know.

It must be voluntary, I've looked at her posting history and there's nothing that bad there. Certainly a lot less provocative than Terry M32/Terry Telly/whatever other name he's posting under now.

Pippa: You are, of course, entitled to support Ann (Widdecombe) staying in the Strictly Come Dancing even if you have never voted for the political party Ann was in when she was an MP.

Strictly Come Dancing has nothing to do with politics and Ann has not entered the competition as a politician.

Wikipedia describes her as "a former British Conservative Party politician." It adds that she "has been a novelist since 2000."

I wish Ann and her dance partner Anton Du Beke every success in Strictly Come Dancing.

I post using one name to this forum: Terry Telly.

Please do not repeat that part of the comment you made in your last posting to this thread (posting number nine) in which you refer to me.

Strictly Come Dancing (SCD) is a non-political good-natured competition - not a General Election.

The Tory party is getting a benefit nonetheless.

And nothing about the show says we can't take politics into account if we want to. We can vote however we like.

I wouldn't call myself exactly an "Ann Supporter" on SCD, though I don't trash this series' inclusion of her like so many people.

IMO she dances in a manner consistent with her social views: stiff, lifeless, lacking in sexuality or anything beautiful.

Yet, it's still entertaining.

deleted.

She's entitled to her opinions like the rest of us, and they have nothing to do with her appearance on SCD.

You may not like her views, but there are many out there who DO agree with her on many of the issues (and no - I'm not one of them!), but unlike many Ann's high profile means that yoou are aware of them. And she must be good at what she did as she was never defeated as a politician, only losing her seat when she chose to retire this year. She was a very capable MP and well liked by her constituents in Maidstone and the Weald.

I rather think that the fact that Maidstone is a very safe Conservative seat, having been Tory since 1906, probably has at least as much effect as the effectiveness of any particular individual MP.

Oh dont let facts get in the way of a good story.

Slaps self on wrist because I said I wouldn't give any thread pertaining to her oxygen.

I might vote for someone if that person represents the party with which I mostly agree, even if I dislike some aspect of the individuals opinions. Voting always is a bit of a compromise, whichever party you agree with. As Muggsey said, Maidstone is a pretty safe Tory seat.

I',m most definitely not supporting Ann but that is based purely on the dancing. I want to see good dancing and improvement, a combination of those is what gets my vote. If I incude her political/religious opinions then I'd have to include everyone else's as well and then maybe I could get upset if they were cat lovers instead of dog people and include that into the mix *tongue firmly in cheek*, so for me it's easier to stick with the dancing. I like to keep it simple!

No, you don't. Because someone who writes exactly the same provocative comments and posts the same articles as you do under Terry Telly also posts under TerryM22. This is a flagrant breach of clause 2.4 of the Terms and Conditions of Use of this site. I have reported you to the mods, and will continue to do so.

You have also regularly breached clause 2.2 of the Terms and Conditions of Use by posting links to your Twitpic account containing scanned articles.

http://twitpic.com/photos/TerryMontana22


What? This one?


Who do you think you're kidding? You are purposefully posting provocative comments to get a reaction.

My day job is being an investigator. You are fooling nobody. Like many, I've put your alternative identity on 'ignore' and it's tiresome to have to do it again for you.


*corrected, had the wrong motorway though the comment still stands

What I can't understand is that the Beeb and the thousands of its employees who support and vote for "Widdy" are notoriously well to the left whereas the "full of fun" Ann is right of the right.
Have the Beeb's lefties sold their souls for publicity/audience figures for SCD.

Indeed. I think a monkey could stand for the tories in that seat and still be elected!

And yet Ann was billed as 'Strictly sensation' when she addressed an anti-abortion meeting recently ...

So the two aspects of her life are far from mutually exclusive. If you want to pretend otherwise, that's up to you - but the facts speak for themselves.

Nice point, I wasn't aware of that.

Clearly the two "strands" are not mutually exclusive, or at the very least she's happy to utilise the Strictly angle when it's beneficial to her. The Beeb & Claudia* may choose to ignore the more repugnant side to her character however I can't bring myself to brush it under the carpet.


* I say this as a whole hearted and passionate supporter of the BBC & Claudia, usually.

How on earth does the Tory part benefit! As iif I'm going to vote for the tories because of her attempts to dance or the Lib Dems because Lembit was in the jungle....does not compute...( he says in a computer stylee generated voice)