In the first ConservativeHome Q&A, Ann Widdecombe answers the questions you raised. Next Friday we'll publish Ed Vaizey MP's answers to your questions.
Gerard McGuigan: You are possibly one of the Party's few gems, will you ever return to frontline politics?
It is not for me to decide whether I will ever return to front line politics. Such positions are by invitation only! However it is generally known, if this Parliament is a normal length, I expect to retire at the end of it and therefore it is unlikely that any invitation would be forthcoming.
Derek: I would like to know whether she still believes that we should have a "no tolerance" policy on drugs, including cannabis. How would she tackle the growing problem of drugs today?
Yes, I believe more than ever that we should have a ‘no tolerance’ policy on drugs including cannabis. I saw Giuliani’s project in New York and was much impressed by it. Clearly the drugs menace will continue to grow unless we tackle it in a serious and determined way.
DavidB: I would like to ask if it is true she is standing down at the next election, and why? Also what she plans to do afterwards, and what she thinks the party's future will be.
Yes it is true that I intend to retire at the next General Election. By that time I will have served Maidstone for 22 years and the time has come to hand over to a new generation with good will. I expect to spend the next few years after retirement writing books and walking dogs on Dartmoor! Meanwhile I fully expect the Conservative Party to be back in Government.
Malcolm: I am interested in her impression of the Conservative backbenchers view of the Iraq conflict and whether it has changed at all in recent months. I am also interested to know whether Cameron consults his backbenchers or does he simply expect them to follow him.
I think there has been a great deal of unease about the Iraq conflict amongst Conservatives but on the whole those who believed it right to go to war still believe it and those who believed it was wrong to go to war still believe it.
Yes, David Cameron does consult backbenchers.
Annabel Herriott: Would you stay on and stand for Speaker? I think you would have the class control of Betty B. thats for sure!
I am very flattered that anybody would suggest I might make a good Speaker! However it is not a role that I can see myself fulfilling.
a-tracy: What memory does she cherish the most of her time in parliament, and what would she least like to remember?
I think the strongest memory that I shall carry away with me into
retirement is that of getting one of my constituents out of jail in
Morocco (by which I mean I got him released not that I sprang him!). By
the time his wife came to see me he had been convicted, sentenced and
was facing 9 years in a Moroccan jail for a crime not even the
Moroccans really believed he committed. It all seemed a completely
hopeless case but by going out to Rabat and badgering various Moroccan
Ministers I was able to secure his release and this made a tidal wave
of difference to his family. Probably the event I would least like to
remember, but almost certainly will, is being stabbed in the back by
certain colleagues after my zero tolerance on drugs speech at the Party
Conference in 2000.
johnC: I would
be interested in how she thinks it is possible to be a committed
Christian in politics when the expression of orthodox opinions (e.g.
'homosexual practice is sinful') is now regarded as a bar to public
office.
I, and indeed other colleagues, continue to
speak out in defence of the traditional family and of Christian values
in general. It should not be a bar to public office that one expresses
such views. I am delighted to find that there are those among the new
intake who share them.
Ted: If she could only change one, which of the 'Built to Last statements' would she change and why?
I wish we would stop endlessly talking about “change”. Change implies a fundamental alteration of character. Of course we need to adapt to give our policies fresh applications but we should never forget that we comprehensively won the political agenda in the second half of the last century and that Blair could never have got elected without conceding that we were right on so much and adopting those policies himself. The greatest compliment that can be paid to a political party is when its opponents adopt its views.
Anonymous: Hunts seem to be continuing despite the passage of the Hunting with Dogs Bill. Do you think that a new law is needed to really deliver an end to foxhunting?
I am content to wait while the animal welfare organisations assemble sufficient evidence for some successful prosecutions and to see what effect that has before moving towards fresh legislation on hunting.
Editor: Do you support the sale of arms to governments that abuse their own citizens?
I believe that every country has the right to defend itself and therefore to purchase arms for that purpose. Of course it is never possible absolutely to guarantee when selling arms that they won’t subsequently be used for internal repression rather than external defence, but it can never be justifiable to sell arms in the full knowledge that the governments concerned will use them against their own citizens.
