Widdecombe, So Very Unfair

It's a folk song that almost all English children of a certain age will know:

Tam Pearce, Tam Pearce, lend me your grey mare.
All along, down along, out along lea.
For I want for to go to Widecombe Fair,
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney,
Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

English original Ann Widdecombe, a former Tory Member of Parliament, Brexit enthusiast and Reform Party spokeswoman, was murdered in her home on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. She was 78 years old.

One might have been pardoned, reading the first accounts of her death, for believing that this lady had succumbed to old age and—perhaps—ill health. A sorrow, but not a tragedy, and certainly not a national outrage.

But, within a few hours, things turned darker, amid reports that "suspicious circumstances" related to Ann's originally-announced death on Thursday, July 9, 2026, had been brought to the police.

And so (as it always is in the UK) a clamp down on information (because "live investigation"), and we had to wait on what came next.

After a much-delayed "press conference," the Devon and Cornwall Police (Ann Widdecombe's local police force) announced that a 26-year-old "White British National" was in custody. Crowing that the closure of the case represented "the very best in British policing." LOL.

No repercussions from a "terrorism" or other sort of crime. Thank goodness. Et cetera.

Not all that long after, this young man was released and "no longer a focus" of the investigation.

Whaaat?

Then we discovered that Ann had been killed perhaps 24 hours earlier than originally thought, and actually had died on Wednesday, July 8, 2026.

Presumably, the previous "arrestee" had been let go because "new information," likely from the post-mortem, and relating to the time of death, released him from accountability.

Next, on Saturday, July 11, 2026, we heard the news that a suspect in Ann's death had been arrested near Rotherham, Yorkshire, almost 300 miles away from her home. He'd been seen—according to CCTV and the neighbors—getting into his car with some sort of a "wooden stick," and (presumably) heading down to Essex and Ann's home.

At the time of his arrest (on Saturday, July 11), Ann's local police force said they'd come to this arrest via cooperation with the Yorkshire "counter terrorism" task force.

Hello?

Still, the next, and all subsequent, news briefings (which refused to take questions after the first one) didn't explain why it was that Yorkshire "counter terrorism" police were involved in the arrest, and the Devon and Cornwall Police continued to insist that there was "no evidence at all" for a terrorist linkage in this case.

Until, apparently, there was.

Monday morning in the UK, Britain's "counter-terrorism" police took control of the investigation, shoving aside the Devon and Cornwall police, re-arresting the still-unnamed suspect already in custody, and charging him with "suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."

Anyone with what US Senator John Kennedy might call "an IQ above that of a toaster" may have understood from the first reports (48 hours ago) of counter-terrorism involvement in the arrest that such a concern might have been relevant, but apparently such consideration wasn't to be shared with the British public, who've largely been gaslighted as to the ongoing investigation.

This morning, all that changed. And Nigel Farage, who's been saying for more than three days now—and has suffered much in the way of pushback—that all this is politically motivated, appears to have been vindicated.

God bless, Ann. A British eccentric we don't see so much of anymore these days. A committed Christian and a woman of principle.

She was also a magnificent representative of a person able to laugh at herself. One who became beloved—sometimes because of, sometimes in spite of—her appearance on "Strictly Come Dancing" (the UK original of "Dancing with the Stars"). Ann, who barely cleared five feet, insisted before signing that she wouldn't be required to overcome the dance steps, and that she would not allow her huge bosom to be exposed for clicks. Her partner, Anton du Beke, said this about her after her death:

I had the most brilliant time with Ann on Strictly Come Dancing, she became a real friend, she was fun, she was upbeat, she was positive, she was supportive, she was game, wanted to enter into the spirit of the whole thing," he said in a video on X posted shortly before the murder probe was announced.

Here she is:

Rest in Peace, dear lady.