WHEN WIDDY GOT THE WILLIES

IN MY second year at Oxford, I stood for the Union presidency and won. My immediate contemporaries included four future ministers (William Waldegrave, Robert Jackson, Ann Widdecombe and Edwina Currie).

Ann was a tad unusual, even at 20. She had a boyfriend called Colin and they walked about like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, rather stiffly holding hands. Her faith was important to her.

As an MP later, when she travelled around the country giving speeches she took with her copies of a book, On Christian Principles, to distribute after the meeting.

Once, she left the books in her car and shortly before the meeting was seen running frantically through the streets of Maidenhead calling out to bewildered passers-by: ‘I’ve lost my Christian Principles!’