Top 110 Quotes & Sayings by Ann Widdecombe - Page 2

Strictly's strength is its appeal to all the family. The greatest compliment I was paid during my stint was from a lady at Paddington station who told me that every time the programme came on her four-year-old son would demand: 'Where's that granny, Mummy? I want the granny to win.'

All of us, whether public figures or private individuals, should feel safe in our own homes and not fear surveillance from nosy neighbours.

Believing in God was something I took as much for granted as the air I breathed. Religion wasn't something that came out of a box on Sunday.

My mother always said bringing me up was a tiring business, which I 'believe. For instance, when we lived in Singapore, the Chinese staff used to leave their slippers at the bottom of the steps. Every night, I used to go and remove their slippers. I stopped being tiresome at about 14.

The modern notion of background music is a loud thump, thump, thump. It isn't only conversation it kills but also concentration.

I can't hear rhythm.

Secularism has no central goal, it's just promoting endless relativism. That's why there is a huge moral drift in the country. Everybody is infallible except the Pope, if you like.

It would be nonsense to try to suggest that somebody who tried to rouse 2,000 people to their feet - which is what I used to do at conference - doesn't have any element of exhibitionism about them.

In the 1990s, while the Maastricht debate was raging, I was a minister in the Major government. Every single piece of legislation we proposed had to be scrutinised for compatibility with E.U. law.

Britain must govern Britain and nothing less will do.

An MP is an MP whether male or female.

The Royal Opera House? I once had the immense privilege of appearing there and was awed by the air of refinement of those seemingly ethereal beings who floated about in the highest echelons of musical accomplishment, effortlessly producing virtuoso performances in several different languages.

If I were queen for a day, every city would have to spend one hour in utter silence: no music in shops and restaurants, no honking of horns, no conversations on mobile phones. Only birds would be allowed to sing.

The E.U. is terrified that we might become a competitor on its doorstep and that is exactly what we should be.

Our state ceremonies have a religious foundation. We have compulsory religious education. And the Church should be a moral guardian. We have in this country a long Christian heritage and Christian culture and we shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to give that up.

Almost anybody from the past will hold views discordant with the present.

I don't have a problem with other people having different faith; my problem is if we confuse respecting that with surrendering our own faith.

I am not a natural dancer, not even a half way competent dancer.

Car horns were invented to warn other drivers of your presence, not to express displeasure or greetings.

If any further proof were needed that the Liberal Democrats live up to neither part of their name, then the treatment of Roman Catholic Robert Flello would have provided it. They were glad enough to have him when he defected from Labour but have now deselected him because he supports neither abortion nor gay marriage.

Actors and entertainers can become parliamentarians, so why should parliamentarians not become entertainers and actors?

Professionals use 'Strictly' as a relaunch of flagging careers. In my year Kara Tointon won. She had been talking about giving up acting in favour of interior design, but the glitter ball led to a role as Eliza Doolittle in the West End.

If you'd said to me when I was 21, 'You're going to get into parliament, be a senior minister of state, shadow health secretary, shadow home secretary, a privy councillor, be endorsed by the Times as a candidate for Speaker, have four novels published, and then have great fun after you retire,' I'd have said, 'That sounds like a good life.'

I am a passionate opponent of fox hunting because the fox runs in fear of its life over a prolonged period, hearing the hounds getting closer and closer. Barbarous does not even begin to describe such a sport.

What I do not like is militant secularism, whereby anything is acceptable as long as it's not Christian.

Never judge something by whether it is popular or not. You don't have to follow trends. No one thought William Wilberforce was right at first.

Everybody who talks about 'Strictly' talks psychobabble. They say they're going on a journey, or trying to build their confidence, or getting over a divorce or something. People say there must be a deep reason to do these things. But there isn't! I'm just having fun.

I think a sense of family, of commitment to family, and of helping each other and standing by each other, are essential. I pity anyone who doesn't grow up with that.

Marriage isn't about two people; it is the basis for the family. That's why it's unique, and therefore I think society can say we're keeping marriage for a man and a woman.

Parliament was an institution of enormous standing when I was aspiring to go in. It isn't now.

Everything I did in politics affected somebody.

The state does not belong in bedrooms. So I'm not authoritarian. I don't say: 'You shouldn't do this, you must do that.' What I do say is that the state must have a preferred model, and the model that has served us throughout the millennia is marriage - a man and a woman in a union that is generally open to procreation.

Of course Meghan Markle wasn't driven out of this country by racism. It is a ludicrous claim and symptomatic of how ridiculous the must-be-offended-at-all-costs brigade has become.

It is a truth universally unacknowledged at Westminster that there is life after politics.

My father was in the admiralty and he rose to a very senior position. He was very formidable; a bit grumpy, but I loved him dearly.

I've never understood this business of 'I could always have had something more.' If what you had was good, then thanks be to God.

Men are easier to get on with than women. They tend not to make emotional demands on you.

If we deny our culture and become nothing and everything, that weakens us.

Well, I spent 23 years in politics, and bits of that were fun.

That's the joy of retirement - you're not trying to develop a career any more.

I was walking across King's Cross station when a drunken Irishman came stumbling up and flung his arms around me. He wanted to thank me for the peace process in Northern Ireland.

For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England's compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn't care if something is unpopular.

In politics there is no right answer - and no final answer.

The instant you say All Quiet On The Western Front people remember that great 20th century classic book on war, a book about a school boy turned into a soldier overnight.

I cannot bear the language TV chefs use - they don't seem able to look at a plate of vegetables without accusing it of sexual activity.

The abuse of children is the worst offence that anybody can commit.

My cat did that the other day when he came in from the garden.

We also heard the usual old nonsense that banning hunting would affect employment if we abolished crime we would put all the police out of work. If we abolished ill-health we would put all the nurses and doctors out of work. Will anybody argue that we should preserve crime and ill-health in order to keep people in jobs?

I think the rest of the world will think we're made, and indeed we are. We've turned out the greatest Prime Minister in the post war years simply because of short term nerves.

I stay on terra firma: the more firm, the less terror.