Ann Widdecombe thread part 3

Thanks for finding the clip - I thought I was going mad when people were saying this hadn't been said. I think he mis-spoke and should've just ended the sentence with "detectives remain open minded about a potential motive"

I don't think there was anything terrible about him saying that but I don't think he should've said it, I think it was silly, but I think it just boils down to some police being better at communicating to the public than others and its a difficult line to walk with how demanding and aggressive some journalists can be on behalf of a public desire for news and the constant 24/7 news churn.

The other thing is, that I'm quite old school in what I consider 'politically motivated' or 'terror related.' ie I grew up when the IRA were planting bombs all the time and (aside from the fact that paramilitary organisations just end up as thuggery) their political motivations and objectives were clear - they wanted home rule for Ireland.

I find it very hard to understand what Kerry's objective was - if indeed he had one - I would think he's completely unhinged to do what he did, he could've had a lot of amorphous, angry, self righteous thoughts related to Reform policy, social conservatism, Catholicism and so on and so forth. If it was purely Reform - Miss Widdecombe wasn't even a serving MP, she was a 78 year old woman living alone and I just still find that fact so upsetting and disturbing, my mum being a similar age and on her own. Maybe she reminded him of someone he hated? Nobody knows, maybe more will come out when he is in court again and will make his plea, which is October if I recall correctly.

You'll have to find it then, as you've been proven wrong so far.

I think the first press conference with two officers was this one the following day:

Again, Assistant Commissioner Matt Longman says (around 1:10 in the video) they are open minded about motives but said that "at this stage there was nothing to suggest it was politically motivated".

At this point the police had talked to journalists on camera three times - this press conference, the one the previous evening to which I linked up thread, and the initial statement by DCI Ilona Rosson when she did not answers questions and did not say anything about motive.

Thats also not the police officer I was referring too, I meant another police officer from Devon and Cornwall was speaking , with another officer in his side.
It wasn’t a conference as such , more of a statement.

This is him.

Anne was found dead on 9th July. The police confirmed it was a murder investigation on 10th July with a brief statement by DCI Ilona Rosson saying they were deploying "all of the necessary resources" to locate the suspect. She did not answer any questions and did not say anything about motive. The next time the police spoke to the press was this press conference later that day. Some with an axe to grind have repeatedly misrepresented what Assistant Commissioner Matt Longman said in this press conference, leading many to incorrectly recall him ruling out a political motive, which he did not.

Even if it's not explicitly stated, it's implied by the '...at this stage'.

You can see the press conference at . At 32:17 a Sky journalist specifically asks if there is any evidence of a political motive and the reply from the Assistant Chief Constable is, "No, at this time again its early stages of the investigation so we remain open minded. At this time I've got no information to believe that that is a politically motivated crime."

Contrary to the spin some tried to put on it, that clearly is not the police ruling out a political motivation.

Why didn’t they just say they wouldn’t rule it out , they are keeping an open mind and the investigation is in its early stages?

They said they had no evidence that it was politically motivated at this stage but they were keeping an open mind and weren't ruling anything out, so pretty much what you think they should have said.

oh ok, but when they informed Anns family, surely they have told them then straight away ?

Putting that aside the police said there was nothing to suggest it was politically motivated, at that time.

Why didn’t they just say they wouldn’t rule it out , they are keeping an open mind and the investigation is in its early stages?

The reason they said that she had died, as opposed to being murdered was that they hadn’t yet told all her family that it was murder and didn’t want them finding out on the news.

The daily mail constantly screams about Christian values and then doesn't live by them.

If there is a story about someone in public life then publish a rounded well written story so people can read it and make a judgement. Don't assassinate a person every day and publish unfounded opinions.

These news outlets have a responsibility. They need to clean up their act

Couldn't disagree more, any news outlet that publishes vile stuff like that should have there licence revoked and the editors should face the strongest of penalties.

It's not news, it serves no public interest and simply attacks an individual who has no ability to respond. It's public hanging and it's disgusting and no in line with our Christian values that these papers seem to tell us so much about.

X, Instagram, Facebook, tiktok, YouTube and any news outlet that publishes lies, misinformation and hate should face fines and content screened.

Blame the media in particular social media for whipping up hate, the daily mail is right up there as well.

Not everyone has the ability to filter out the hate and this is why it's very irresponsible to stir up division and anger. You end up with unhinged people doing things like this.

Social media is full of it and it has the the ability to turn otherwise normal people into barmy loonatics. I watched a anti vaxer on Instagram the other day and since then I've been bombarded with conspiracy theories and how to remove the he vaccine from your body. You start to question yourself but most people have the ability to be rational and level headed...not everyone has that switch.

It's high time we thought about banning all this content and only allow educational and useful content. Might sound like sensorship but for me it's about protecting society from this utter scourge.

I haven’t read all the responses on the three threads , I don’t really believe I’m conspiracy theories. But there’s been something strange from the off about poor Ann’s murder.

At first , if I remember rightly, it was reported that Ann Widdecmbe had been found dead in her home aged 78. Or that she had died.

So initially hearing that , you’d think Ann had just died , nothing to suggest a murder.

It wasn’t initially reported that she’d been found murdered in her home. But it was obvious to the people that first found her that she had been murdered, so why not say that to start with ?

Next, Devon and Cornwall police say that there’s nothing to suggest it was politically motivated. Yet at that time , no one knew whether it was or wasn’t so why say that ? They could have just said that they are keeping an open mind at this early stage of the investigation and they can’t say if it was politically motivated or not.

Over on channel 5 just now, some clips programme about the drought of 1975.

It's just got clips of Widdecombe with standard popular history banter about whatever minister was in charge then. I think it's the sheer shock of seeing her, knowing what happened

God rest her soul 💐

I'm grateful that I was able to share time and geography with her. She was magnificent.🌹

Condolences to her family and friends.❤️‍🩹