The Empire Snaps Back: Ann Widdecombe and a Racist Pensioner

I have never felt ashamed of being British, but some recent events have made me feel  decidedly embarrassed. I knew that the Brexit MEPs would act in peculiar ways, but not in the way they did at the opening of the European parliament recently. Nigel Farage, of course, is a regular performer at such events; he did the same with UKIP MPs in 2014. The Brexit menagerie were objecting to the playing of the EU anthem, making themselves, and, by association, Britain and all British people look ridiculous. Sadly, the Brexit MEPs were quite unrepentant. Anne Widdecombe, the retired pantomime dame, commented:

"What we did was symbolic. We didn't make a noise, we didn't disrupt anything… we just turned around to say 'we reject this."

Ms Widdecombe went on to say that they had received "volumes of support" on social media. We have heard about this "popular support" many times before, and I think we need to look at the nature of that support and its ugly connotations. Two apparently unrelated recent events exemplify this: one being Ann Widdecombe's ridiculous but significant "slavery" speech and the other the court appearance of a 74-year-old white Bermondsey man for racist abuse.

Ms Widdecombe's now-notorious speech stands as an example of how to stir up populist fire - fire which might consume the instigator, as seen in the picture above. She has some peculiar ideas, as we know from her recent statements about how science might "produce an answer" to homosexuality. Her ideas about the EC are equally bizarre. She was quoted by the Guardian as saying:

“There is a pattern consistent throughout history of oppressed people turning on their oppressors, slaves against their owners, the peasantry against the feudal barons, colonies against empires, and that is why Britain is leaving … It doesn’t matter which language you use, we are leaving and we are pleased to be going. Nous allons [sic], wir gehen, we are off!”

Like, hopefully, many other reasonably sane people, I am amazed that a supposedly responsible public representative could make such patently absurd comments. No wonder she was described as a competitor for Nigel Farage as chief clown at the European parliament. The Guardian quoted Martin Horwood, a LibDem MEP, as saying:

 “If Ann Widdecombe had any grip on reality, she would have the sense to look at her own record on oppressing women and minorities when she defended shackling pregnant women and opposed repealing section 28."

As dismal as Widdecombe's record is on these issues, Horwood is mistaken when he says that she has no grip on reality. On the contrary, for all the rubbish she talks, Widdecombe knows exactly what she is doing; she is well aware of whom she is trying to reach. Her speeches are not meant to impress all of us, but rather the bigoted, unreasoning, xenophobic, racist element in British society who labour under the paranoid belief that they are being "got at" by foreigners. Now, I don't mean to suggest that Alexandra Phillips, Brexit MEP for the South East, is a bigoted, unreasoning, xenophobic racist, and I know that many Brexit supporters emphatically deny being any of those things. But, as has been said many times: not all Brexit supporters are racists, but all racists are Brexit supporters who would surely agree with Ms Phillips' comment on Widdecombe's speech:

“Tears in my eyes. She represents the ignored majority. Brave and principled. Our Ann.”

One member of the "ignored majority" is the man pictured below: 74-years old John Keogh, of Bermondsey.

Mr Keogh was recently fined £600 at Croydon Magistrates' Court for racially abusing a black female member of staff at a branch of Coral Bookmakers on Peckham High Street. Among other choice remarks, he called the woman a "F---ing N---er" and adopted an aggressive attitude, causing her to fear for her safety. Of particular interest here, however, is that he also told the woman: "When Brexit comes, you will be gone". Mr Keogh, you see, is one of Alexandra Phillips' "ignored majority". He would also undoubtedly endorse Ann Widdecombe's "slavery" speech. As has been noted before, racists drew encouragement from the EC referendum result. At no time have Messrs Farage, Widdecombe, Phillips and their dreary tribe said that they will forcibly repatriate ethnic or religious minorities, but, as can be seen from Keogh's remark, and the undeniable rise in hate crime, racists think that will happen. Widdecombe and Phillips would obviously (no choice!) condemn Keogh's crime, but, from a political point of view, all three have much in common.

John and Ann: united as Brexit supporters!