No, not lord Young telling the unemployed they “never had it as good”, Ann Widdecombe making a fool of herself on Strictly Come Dancing. It may be a small thing in the scheme of things, but it show the essential pettiness and nastiness disguised as humour of much of the Tory party.

As you know, Strictly Come Dancing is a lighthearted entertainment show and dance competition featuring a dozen or so celebrities who’ve never had dancing lessons and their professional partners. Some of the celebs find out that they’re actually good at show dancing, some find out they’re crap and weeks of training doesn’t change that much, while most muddle through for shorter or longer periods. Widdecombe is of the second category, hopeless and with no chance of improving. There’s no shame in being a bad dancer, but what Widdecombe does goes against the spirit of the show: she doesn’t even attempt to try and dance to the best of her abilities, but flat out refuses to do anything she deems indecent. Though how shaking your hips is indecent while being dragged over the dance floor legs akimbo with your bum sticking out isn’t, I’ll never know.

Widdecombe than is even worse than John Sargent, who did try his best to dance when was in the programme, but treated it as an extended joke once it became clear he had the audience on his side and would never be voted off, no matter how dismal the judges scored him. He at least withdrew once the joke had stopped being funny. I can’t see Widdecombe doing that: she has a much too huge ego. As a result, each week better and more deserving dancers are voted off. It’s typical Tory to abuse priviledge this way, to disguise ego as principle.