Anne Widdicombe was a former Prime Minister and government minister, household name in the UK. She was a strong and unpretentious law and order figure, who represented the views of tabloid Britain in the 80s and 90s, and was pilloried by the tabloids for her views.
00:02:09.980via, I think, come dancing and that sort of thing.
00:02:14.740Jenny, you'll correct me if I'm wrong on that.
00:02:17.140And the transformation was how she was seen in the eyes of the British public, because when she was, I think, the President's Minister in the John Major government in the 90s, she had black hair in those days, and she was pilloried in the tabloid press, which is very dominant in the UK as a political presence.
00:02:45.280She was pilloried, and because she, as prison minister, signed a governmental order insisting that pregnant women in hospitals who are prisoners, who are giving birth, need to remain handcuffed at all times, even when they're giving birth, to stop them escaping.
00:08:12.820hit over the head with a hammer 21 times.
00:08:16.380And it was like, correct me if I'm misremembering this, Jenny,
00:08:21.300but it seemed to be like 24 hours after,
00:08:24.380it was that the police announced that they were actually opening a murder inquiry.
00:08:28.800Because the first of all, you thought, because we all,
00:08:33.220she never, Anne Riddicombe never married, famously, she never married.0.85
00:08:37.300She was what in old English one would have called a spinster.
00:08:43.660So when her body was discovered the next day,
00:08:46.160you assume that she is a natural death of old age.
00:08:49.860And then the police announced that it was a murder investigation.
00:08:54.280Oh, wow, that's a bit of a turnaround.
00:08:56.040And you're saying to what one says to oneself, Jenny Holland,0.88
00:08:59.760well, hang on, hang on, she was hit over the head with a hammer 21 times.
00:09:06.240Why was this, you know, what was his majesty's constabulary
00:09:12.220actually doing in the first 24 hours of this?
00:09:16.160Um, and, and as luck would have it, providence perhaps, um, Anne Whittacombe had a CCTV camera in her home from the hallway pointed towards the kitchen, which is where the murder took place.
00:09:30.700Um, so this, all of this was, was, was actually picked up and I hand over now, Jenny, to you, but you, you sort of think you want things to oneself.
00:09:39.020If this hadn't, I guess that's how they know it was 21 hammer blows, because they timed the guy coming in.
00:09:47.880They heard the conversation. They timed him going out. They said it took two minutes, the whole thing.
00:09:53.480So you think one immediately thinks that the actual hammer blows were caught on camera, at least in a way that they could count the number of times.
00:10:01.400Jenny, one wonders that if it hadn't been all caught on camera, whether the police would still be going around there.
00:10:06.560happy business um oblivious to the fact that it was a murder charge strangely enough the coroner
00:10:14.000the coroner right whose job it is whose task it is to come up with the cause of death um is still
00:10:23.460saying that then that they're still in the process of determining the precise cause of death um even
00:10:30.640though this 70-year-old frail lady had been hit over the head with a hammer 21 times.
00:10:37.620They're still working out what the cause of death might be.
00:10:42.380I said that the winning theme that the show is authentic witness.
00:10:46.580We don't quite know what the motives are yet, though you have the latest on this.
00:10:53.160I just want to say in this week when the UK swears in its seventh prime minister in 10 years, and notably the first Catholic prime minister in the country's history of the office of prime minister, going back to Robert Walpole, right?
00:11:14.960because, as we all know, Boris Johnson was baptised Catholic as a baby
00:11:22.420but defected to the Church of England when he was at school.
00:11:26.500Tony Blair defected from the Church of England to the Catholic Church
00:12:25.960with the very secular British mentality
00:12:29.060even though thanks to her, her second life as a TV star
00:12:33.680she did become a beloved figure. Andy Burnham
00:12:37.600and one presumes from fine northern recusant stock.0.94
00:12:44.580As I say, I've not seen him say anything only a Catholic would say,
00:12:48.900and I certainly have never seen him say anything a pre-1958 Catholic would only ever say,
00:12:55.620but we'll watch and see how he grows into the role
00:13:01.300and see if there's anything Catholic or even Christian that emerges out of it.
00:13:06.640so jenny you've been following this thing as has everyone else in the uk uh tell me what the latest
00:13:13.140is then with regards to ann riddickham and the guy that they have uh arrested yeah i mean i think
00:13:19.520just to your point of andy burnham i mean all all catholics are not created equal as we cover all
00:13:25.760the time on this show and i would suspect that you will hear nothing that is truly catholic out
00:13:31.460of that man's mouth in however long his tenure might be. But yeah, Anne Whitacombe was out of
00:13:37.960step to a certain extent with the public sentiment of the UK, if you're judging public sentiment of
00:13:44.780the UK by its sort of intelligentsia, policymaking class, and elite class, and certainly media class.
00:13:51.520As you point out, her views were something of a throwback. She was the kind of woman who I think0.68
00:13:57.220would have been extremely common and probably very respected in British society until sort of0.95
00:14:03.900modernity and post-modernity really kicked in. And the just sheer awfulness of her death
00:14:12.400is really causing a lot of soul searching here. I think people, at least people on the right,
00:14:21.140not that they needed further confirmation of the toxicity of the political environment generally,
00:14:29.180but it's certainly one of the most brutal reminders of it.
00:14:34.260A 78-year-old woman being murdered is really kind of, you know,
00:14:40.060apart from maybe a child being murdered, is maybe the lowest thing a person can do.
00:14:45.200A 78-year-old woman being murdered with, as you say, 21 blows to the head with a hammer is just particularly heinous.
00:14:56.180Now, the video that you referenced, and it is mentioned in the Daily Mail article, that the man walks into her home as she's eating her lunch, asks her if she has any bank cards and ID.
00:15:10.620And as he asked her this, he's holding behind his back so she can't see a hammer.
00:15:17.500And then it doesn't say that she even had the chance to respond in any way.
00:15:44.960And then he proceeded, according to police, to drive 270 miles back home to Rotherham, which is in South Yorkshire, and from which he had left that morning.
00:15:55.660So in total, he had driven almost 600 miles that day specifically to carry out this attack in two minutes.
00:16:04.040Um, the, there's a, apart from the weirdness of how the news was sort of, how the news of what
00:16:12.600actually happened to her kind of seeped out. First, it was reported that she had died. And
00:16:17.460like you said, everyone thought, oh dear, well, 70-year-old woman died of natural causes. And
00:16:21.860then I remember the first tweet that came out, it was from someone who knew her, uh, saying that
00:16:26.620night that she had been murdered. And of course she was immediately piled on, like, how dare you
00:16:29.920say such a thing she was proven correct then in the immediate aftermath the police were at pains
00:16:35.200to say there was no political motivation um this is absolutely nothing to speculate about and it
00:16:40.620was just it was it seemed to be some sort of robbery or some sort of uh sort of more petty
00:16:45.280crime non-political crime and then lo and behold within a few days not only had they come out and
00:16:51.260said it was a targeted attack but the local police district had the entire case taken off them and it
00:16:57.220was turned over to counterterrorism police who arrested then this man Joshua Carey on suspicion
00:17:05.020of carrying out essentially a terrorist attack. And it just hasn't gotten any less bizarre how
00:17:12.520this has been handled from a public relations perspective. The sort of drip feeding of
00:17:21.040information one commentator a very famous one here carl benjamin said today on his youtube channel
00:17:27.760that it made it it sort of prevented there from being any kind of coalescing of outrage around
00:17:34.480this as like i said one of the most heinous crimes that a person can commit a vulnerable
00:17:40.020old woman sitting on her own in her own home um the kind of leakage was just sort of it almost
00:17:46.560seems like it was designed to uh sort of dissipate the blowback that would would come from you know
00:17:53.840people drawing attention to this toxic political climate um but then yeah it's then you wonder is
00:18:00.240it that or is it sort of keystone cops incompetence because i don't understand much like yourself how
00:18:06.080you can have a coroner say we have not established a cause of death when someone's been they can
00:18:11.400can establish that they've been hit over the head 21 times but in that article it does also say that
00:18:17.200another uh official said it was blunt force trauma so the whole thing has just been an absolute
00:18:23.380shambles um and a terrible disrespect to a woman who was such an integral part of the um a british
00:18:32.220society um and he was like maybe the last remnant of an old kind of britain that would have been the
00:18:40.340norm and would have actually been like it was I mean as unfashionable and um as easy it was as0.98
00:18:46.380easy as it was to make fun of her um you know it was women like that sort of difficult old sort of1.00
00:18:52.680battle axe women who really kept society in check to a large degree pretty much throughout all of0.99
00:18:58.840human history um and now that they're gone I mean are we doing any better in society like I think1.00
00:19:03.740you can actually make an argument that we're not so it's just an added disrespect upon heaped upon
00:19:09.100this poor woman who has been treated abominably post-death, even to a worse degree than she was
00:19:16.380in life. Oh, and the final thing. So four days ago, Nigel Farage wrote a piece in The Sun
00:19:25.840saying that he had it on good authority. And that was the exact phrase that he used,
00:19:30.740that the alleged killer was a far-left activist who regularly attended far-left rallies and marches
00:19:40.880and had said things like violent or aggressive things about Nigel Farage.
00:19:47.400But the odd thing is, you know how the internet can always turn up old social media posts,
00:23:10.220text bannon b-a-double-n-o-n to 9-8-9-8-9-8 and just say to philip patrick who is one of the
00:23:17.620world's experts on diversifying investments to to to include ios in physical gold just say look
00:23:27.760tell him what your circumstances are um you don't need to have hundreds of thousands in savings to
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00:23:38.520is this something i should consider or not and he'll talk you through what your options are and
00:23:43.780you might decide to go forward with it you might decide not to go forward with it but it is an
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00:23:54.920to nine eight nine eight nine eight okay frank um let's start this story then so we have this we've
00:24:03.520translated this article that appeared in the French Christian newspaper, Le Vie.
00:24:10.880I think that means the life, but I wouldn't swear to that because my French is pretty ropey.
00:24:17.460I had tipped a variety who I think first in the Catholic sphere carried over this article into the Anglo sphere.
00:24:27.400a French sociologist has done an analysis
00:24:32.300in the old school method of basically going through an old directory
00:24:38.060going back to 2027 of what were the contemplative religious orders in France
00:24:46.240and then her and her researcher went around phoning them up this year
00:24:50.540to see if they're still in existence and it was like
00:24:52.460that's how they did it, this old school research
00:24:56.200But of this, I think some 91 abbeys and monasteries have closed down Frank Walker. Of those, 21 were by ritual, both in French and in celebrating the monastic office, saying the monastic office in both French and Latin.
00:25:19.840And here's the headline figure, and I know you're going to break this down, and I know even without talking to you, Frank Walker, I don't want to steal your lead here, but I know even without going through with you on this story, the headline, the fact that it is buried, it is a buried lead in the article itself.
00:25:38.680But of those monastic communities in France that were exclusively on the Latin right, they had zero closures since 2027, which is absolutely extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary research.
00:25:53.820When I say, Frank, you and I could spend the whole show talking about this story.
00:25:57.720It is precisely there in that statistic that says so much about the condition of the church right now.
00:26:05.180look you know what we'll do this we'll do this after the after the break because we've got this
00:26:09.780break coming up um but this really does it underlines the point that we mentioned constantly
00:26:15.500on the war room here that the real regeneration in the catholic church is to be found in the past
00:26:21.820in in the unchanged and changing catholic liturgy that was passed down to us from christ and the
00:26:29.500apostles and wherever you see innovation radical innovation innovation catered around um
00:26:38.040appeasing secular mentality secular ideas whenever you see the catholic church bending down to
00:26:47.820modernity you always see within about two generations implosion collapse retreat and
00:26:54.740failure but our bishops and cardinals press on back with frank walker to explore this more in
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00:38:03.920But I'd like to see perhaps more formally
00:38:08.240which were the orders that they looked at.
00:38:10.140But interestingly, it was the insight that when women joined these communities in years gone by, there was an element of being able to successfully escape the patriarchy in doing that.
00:38:28.460That is to say they were early anticipations, if you will.
00:38:32.120And I know one should never mix concepts in this way, but it's a way that I hadn't thought about it before.
00:38:38.780that it was an early form of women's emancipation um you join these communities to get away
00:38:45.400basically from the patriarchy because they were female-led um and one of the dynamics
00:38:51.020sorry just really briefly one of my relatives did that had that exact experience she came from a
00:38:57.720very poor family with a lot of children and sort of a rather brutal father and she entered um i
00:39:05.800forget which order now but she became a nun
00:39:35.800Many women have that calling. They want to be live that life and give their life to God.0.99
00:39:41.400They don't want to live the married life. And they should. I think just like Anne Whittacombe, the beating heart of the church are these monasteries.
00:39:49.420This is the muscular part of Catholicism that brings the graces and the sacrifices.
00:39:54.220And it does bring out all the power and amazingness that women can bring because the monasteries and the nuns just have done so much.
00:40:02.860They were an integral part of Catholic life, you know, just a couple of decades ago.
00:40:08.880I want to thank you both for those for those insights on this subject.
00:40:13.540I'll add this again because the time pressure is on to get through these things today.
00:44:10.000And I think it's something of a signal,
00:44:13.880as Bannon would say, a signal, not noise,
00:44:17.400as to the state of Ireland spiritually in 2026.
00:44:24.480Um, you know, Ireland is a famously Catholic country, perhaps the most famous Catholic country in the world, perhaps even more so than Italy. Um, it is the, it was an engine of Catholic devotion for centuries, uh, was famously punished for it by your lot, Ben, um, not, not to bring up the war.
00:44:48.880And, you know, it's just it was so in fact, the Catholicism was so ingrained into the fabric and into the soul of the nation in ways that, you know, when I was growing up, you know, the child of lefty liberals was considered bad.
00:45:06.600But, you know, it was indisputably the foundation of this society.
00:45:12.260So to see this kind of violence break out in a church, again, upon a woman, again, a religious devout woman who is well known, an active member of this community, according to reports, well known in the parish for her devotion, for her religiosity, really just says so much about Ireland in 2026, which is a country that is really losing its way rapidly.
00:45:38.800And the kind of there's an increase in violence in society overall. One of the funnily enough, one of the noteworthy aspects of this attack was that it was not carried out by a migrant.
00:45:52.660Um, Ireland now is probably more famous for having this insane influx of single men, um, known as international protection, asylum, uh, uh, uh, asylum seekers, you know, protection from what, to be honest, like we need protection from them.0.65
00:46:10.020Um, and, and other, other kind of men from Middle Eastern countries and men from these other, other, other very, very, very different cultures who have committed a string of incredibly brutal high profile stabbings over the last, I don't know, four years.
00:46:26.800um uh so it's notable that this this particular story does not fit into that mold um but it does
00:46:35.580fit into the the this growing sense of ireland being at a crisis point i mean it's it's been
00:46:43.940at a crisis point socially speaking in terms of jobs and housing and opportunities for young
00:46:49.860people um and clearly now spiritually as well okay thanks jenny um you know what we're going
00:46:57.740to follow this story some more find out what the details are but on first glance both this story
00:47:05.260and especially the anaerobicum story whenever i hear anything about real violence against christian
00:47:12.840witness i always think you know as we were saying just five minutes ago i always do think
00:47:19.280um there's something diabolic here um authentic christian witness does seem to attract the the
00:47:26.640diabolic um look we've got about two minutes left two and a half minutes left i wonder if we can
00:47:33.300squeeze frank's story in because having spoken about the cost the discipleship cost of authentic
00:47:39.520christian witness authentic catholic witness let's talk about where we're not seeing any of
00:47:45.240that right now and where else would we go to but to rome and i see frank walker my my jaw hit the
00:47:53.300floor that right now pope leo is giving out awards in his own name obviously um and i noticed here
00:48:06.340what was uh villanova universities um there's an association with villanova university and um
00:48:15.220They've said here in their press release that this medal,
00:48:18.600this Leo XIV medal, and I do hope they put Pope Leo in inverted commas,
00:48:25.600will recognize individuals who embody the university's core belief
00:48:41.140You know, it's not even, Frank Walker,
00:48:44.040it's not even a parody anymore no it this is the new church i mean at villanova a supposed
00:48:52.620catholic university they everything is sustainability now they even have the pope leo
00:48:57.880sustainability medal now you remember back that that there's the un sustainability goals from back
00:49:06.000in the obama years were really solidified back then and they really are a guideline on the left
00:49:11.300and this um they want this to be a religion they want this to be the catholic religion
00:49:17.040they're having a new meeting that is about the cries of the earth and the poor it's really all
00:49:24.360just a kind of communism i know that sounds you know uh pat to say that over and over again but
00:49:30.740that's what it is it's about ecological stewardship and the common good and the poor
00:49:36.380And so Villanova is completely turned around. And since Leo went to school there, they seem to be integral to what's going on. They also gave the Liberty Medal that he did. Remember, Jen reported on this Fourth of July stunt that was such a mess that even the New York Times had to had to come in and run cover for it, you know, that they gave him the Liberty Medal at that time.
00:49:59.000that came out of villanova too and a lot you know that that went to all that went to all sorts of
00:50:04.380people that are ruth ginsburg john mccain hillary clinton tony blair stephen spielberg they all got
00:50:11.620that reward and so that's villanova and now this new sustainability ux award they even have a
00:50:18.600sustainability as i as i as our lord says in the sermon of the mount truly you have had your reward
00:50:27.440Look, it's not ridiculous, Frank Walker, to say that this is communist
00:50:31.520because you point out that this is to promote stewardship,
00:50:35.600ecological stewardship, and the common good.
00:50:37.920Reading down further, what emerges is they switch the words
00:50:41.520and they tell you what it's really about.
00:50:43.500They say that the recipients will be evaluated based on their efforts