I am doing my best to be more tolerant towards people of faith. With some, it’s very easy. Their faith is very important to them in the way they live their lives and in how they treat others. Recently, I was the beneficiary of some incredible generosity from a dear friend who represents the absolute best of us. I find it hard to show any form of tolerance towards those who I consider to be among the worst of us. Take Ann Widdecombe. Please.
This ghastly Roman Catholic has dedicated a lifetime towards hate. Intolerant and bigoted, just look at some of her views:
- She is opposed to abortion.
- She is opposed to equal rights for LGBT folk.
- She supports laws against blasphemy
- She wants to reintroduce the death penalty.
- She wants to fine people for taking cannabis.
There’s so much more but her latest diatribe takes the biscuit. Thou shalt not have cheese sandwiches if thou cannot afford them. As da yoot say, WTAF?
It’s not yet time for me to inflict my latest food bank views on you – you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that one – but it is hard to get one’s head around what she is saying. Don’t make cheese sandwiches if you can’t afford the ingredients. Well, no. If you don’t have any money, then you don’t make cheese sandwiches. I’m not sure how to put that another way. In my life as a bleeding heart liberal and do-gooder, I deal with people who can’t afford to buy anything to eat never mind the three basic ingredients for a cheese sandwich. To date, I have not come across anyone with no money and no food who has asked the question: “I can’t afford to make cheese sandwiches, so can you give me the ingredients, please?” No. People with nothing are grateful for anything.
Her assertion that there is no “given right” to low food prices amid rising food prices simply makes no sense at all, so I won’t even attempt to explain it but here I wonder if her religious views fit in with her religion. While I am not a believer in any sense of the word, a brief search of the internet shows countless examples of generosity from the alleged Jesus of Nazareth. Look at Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” Now, that’s pretty clear, isn’t it, and you can find numerous examples that say the same thing. I don’t need to seek spiritual acknowledgements or thanks for helping to feed the poor but the point is that even if you do this stuff to please God, you’re only doing what the scriptures are saying. I haven’t yet been able to find thou shalt not have cheese sandwiches in the bible but then maybe Widdecombe knows the texts far better than I do.
This week, there’s been the National Conservatism Conference at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster, where right wing, religious, conspiracy theory wing nuts from all over the world have gathered to express right wing, religious, conspiracy theory tosh in a display of lunacy that makes my state of mental health actually seem quite normal. Looking at the schedule, Widdecombe appears to be a moderate member of this crackpot world of crazies and here she is making a weird point about poor people not eating cheese sandwiches. The rest of the speakers, a collection of bampots who confirm the simple fact that care in the community has failed, should not just be given a platform, they should be sectioned.
What Widdecombe and co represent is nationalism, something that has not always played out well in history. A near obsession with the nation state and hostility to all others. In other words, the unequivocal message of Brexit, a concept that even its founding father, the thoroughly modern Mosley, the nicotine-stained man frog himself, Nigel Farage says has failed. But for these people, Brexit in itself will never be enough. It will only complete when the poor no longer demand cheese or even food itself.
I’m trying to separate the decency of most middle of the road theists from the hate and bigotry of those on the fringes, of whom there are many. I sense – and I may be wrong: I usually am – that the tide may be turning against the illiberal elite and that many of us would prefer walking a road leading to a kinder, gentler country and an end to the right wing culture wars which have plagued our country for longer than a decade. And maybe a Class A fruitcake like the ludicrous Ann Widdecombe can help us achieve that by us doing the exact opposite of what she wants.
