Ann Widdecombe is out of step with the times and even with the Pope - Christa Ackroyd

She often used that phrase when she thought I was being mean spirited about someone whose actions or words I disagreed with. And, of course, she was usually correct.

Mum was such a gentle soul who lived by the adage: “If you can’t say anything good about someone then say nothing at all.” She was a true Christian, though she believed true religion was the life you lead, not the creed you follow.

So I learned, sometimes at least, to bite my tongue or, to use a biblical term, turn the other cheek.

Well, sorry, Mum, but this week I can do neither. Some things just have to be said without filter. And this week I feel it is important to express my anger at something I see as being just plain wrong. It is also hurtful, bigoted, damaging and downright cruel.

What’s more, Pope Francis, the head of the most powerful church in the world, now apparently agrees with me.

As the darker nights close in and the clocks go back, Covid is still rising in my area and continues to dominate the headlines. So forgive me my simple pleasures if, for the next few weeks at least, Saturday nights offer some sparkly, glittering escapism in the form of Strictly Come Dancing. Because, boy, do we need it.

Every week my distanced friend Kathy and I will do what we do each year and watch in our separate homes, texting each other our critiques after each performance.

We will pour ourselves a glass of wine and sit down to comment on the quality of dancing, the extravagance of the costumes, predict the scores and generally have a good time. And nothing will spoil our pleasure. Least of all Ann Widdecombe.

As you all know, the lovely, smiling and all-round champion Nicola Adams is dancing with a woman – the first time this has happened on the show. At her insistence. Good on her, another barrier broken down. No big deal.

Only Ann Widdecombe tells us that isn’t what the Strictly viewer, especially those with families, wants to see. And that’s when I imploded. Because that statement is everything you need to know about the prejudices that being gay still brings.

Ann Widdecombe is treated by many as some sort of national treasure. She is not to me. She is an outdated irrelevance. And while we are at it – and I haven’t said it before – her dancing on Strictly a couple of years ago was as graceless as the woman herself and just as ridiculous as her views. It was pure pantomime and, for me, no laughing matter.

But this week her comments went a step too far. So this is what I sat down to write in response. Women have danced with women for years. Think Busby Berkeley or the Moulin Rouge.

Men have danced with men for years. Think Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly or the Hollywood hoofers of yesteryear. Not one family was affected by their performances. It doesn’t work that way. Surely we know that by now?

I learned ballet and ballroom by dancing with other girls. I went on to enjoy dancing round my handbag with a host of female friends for decades. It had no bearing on my sexuality. Nor could it. Just as Nicola dancing with another woman won’t turn viewers of a Saturday night entertainment gay. But it might, hopefully, help those who are.

And there I might have finished my column, were it not for the most remarkable, significant and welcome turn of events that I, for one, could never have predicted.

This week the head of the Catholic church made one of the most dramatic and important statements in decades. At last. Pope Francis unequivocally, and for the first time, welcomed gay people openly and without exception into the bosom of his church.

He announced that gay people are “children of God”. He went further and told a church notorious for suggesting that same-sex relationships are in some way sinful that gay people “have the right to be in a family”.

He went on to warn those who may disagree that “nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it”. Well, hallelujah.

Of course, he could have gone further and instead of supporting civil unions to protect same-sex couple’s legal rights could also have announced he was allowing same-sex marriages within the Catholic church.

Maybe he will. I hope so. But for now let us be thankful for all he has said. It is life changing for millions who have felt shunned and abandoned by the religion they sought to follow. And it gives confirmation to the thousands of same-sex couples bringing up children that what they are doing is worthy of praise, not derision. Because everyone has a right to be in a family. The Pope says so. Hurrah. Love is love, is love.

But here is the irony of ironies. Catholicism is the religion followed by Ann Widdecombe. She converted when the Church of England voted to allow women priests. That, she said, was the final straw.

And this from a woman who sadly found her voice in a man’s world. If only she had learned to use it wisely and kindly. Well, now the church she turned to as a moral compass is telling her to think again in the very same week she made another of her nasty little remarks about the LGBT community. Miracles do happen.

Perhaps like Saul on the road to Damascus who heard a voice saying, “Why do you persecute me?” Ann Widdecombe could now examine her conscience as a Christian and say “I was wrong”.

After all, her spiritual leader says so. I await her epiphany.

Until then, keep dancing. And, more importantly, with anyone you choose.

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