YOU`RE HAVING A LAUGH...

I confess that I don`t watch Strictly Come Dancing or The X Factor or any other `show` that relies on humiliation and ridicule to keep its audience and so I agree I may not be qualified to pass any comment.

But I think I`ve seen enough and heard enough about the antics of former Maidstone MP Ann Widdecombe to reach a conclusion about a perception of her that has been with me for some time. Now, some people may see it as `entertaining` that this awkward, portly, clearly unstable, talentless non-dancer should invade our tv screens under the guise of being a `character.`

It`s entirely possible that those who vote for her continued presence on `Strictly` are doing so simply to prolong either her own embarrassment - in other words have a laugh at her expense, which is a bit cruel - or because they have a misguided sense of what passes for talent in this unscrupulous world. Either way, they are doing Ms Widdecombe no favours and, as she has so often claimed to be a bastion of fair mindedness, she really ought to see the reality of it all and retire as gracefully as her unsteady pins will allow. I see that some people claim that she is a `national treasure` but I fear for her as much as the rest of us that she is fast becoming a national embarrassment.