THE RIGHT GOODBYE..

In a way it`s none of my business, as I`m not a `constituent` of Ann Widdecombe. But I am a taxpayer paying her wages and her allowances and, as such, entitled to the occasional comment. It seems odd to me that MPs seem, by and large, to have been viewed as a bit special by those who support them and I guess that in some cases that may have been justified.

Now, I have no reason to doubt that Ms Widdecombe might well have been a good constituency MP, helping those constituents of hers that needed her help over the 20 years of her time as MP for Maidstone and the Weald. But I have to confess that, even from the relatively short distance of a neighbouring constituency, the news that she will be standing down at the next election brings a sense of relief. It means that I will no longer have to listen to that stentorian shriek or have to endure her self promoting antics. I see that some time ago, she bought a retirement home at Haytor in the wilds of Devon, having sold her constituency home in the Wealden village of Sutton Valence in preparation for her retirement. I`m sure there are arrangements for her constituents still to get in touch with her locally but the move to Devon might just have given a misleading signal about her continuing commitment to those who voted her in.

Outside her work as an MP, she has developed a career as an author, appeared very often on television and radio in a wide variety of programmes little connected with parliamentary work and she seems quite unable to resist an interview here, a comment there and an opinion more or less everywhere. In short, she has had much to say about much too much.

Whilst being one of 98 MPs voting against the publication of their expenses, the revelations about her own expenses, whilst in the main scandal-free, were `interesting.` One of the costs she expected the rest of us to pay for was mowing the lawns at her Sutton Valence abode. Her explanation was, "When you are spending most of your time in London, you have to pay for someone to cut the grass. Who else was going to cut my grass? The cat? The cat did not even live in my second home." I`m not sure when grass cutting was accepted as being directly related to her work as an MP but even accepting that the grass needed cutting, why did we have to pay for it and not her?

Not too long ago, she was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Maidstone, seemingly in recognition of the job she has been handsomely rewarded for doing these past 20 years. That`s the kind of thing that exemplifies what I mean about MPs being viewed as `a bit special.` But times have changed. Deference no more. Reality bites and, as Ann Widdecombe leaves the stage and heads for the backwaters of Devon, I wish her no harm. But at the risk of recording a comment that is almost treasonable in these parts, I do breathe a genuine sigh of relief that we might finally never hear from her ever again.