Did Guy Gibson and his mates go to war in vain? asks ANN WIDDECOMBE – Express

I no more believe in Guy Gibson's ghost than I do in Martians landing in my garden but if I did meet it this is what I should say: Thank you for all you did to keep this country free.

It is entirely due to the courage of people like you and your colleagues that I did not grow up with London draped in swastikas and concentration camps in the counties.

You died to preserve our liberty but I am afraid we have squandered that precious legacy.

We are not free to express our opinions, a right we would once have taken for granted.

Britain is now a place where people can lose livelihoods and be vilified just for disagreeing with prevailing state orthodoxy or with the views of a vocal and vindictive minority.

Indeed, the police have appeared on doorsteps to "check the thinking" of citizens who dissent.

Isn't that what you were fighting against?

After the war we set up a rather wonderful thing called the National Health Service.

But now it has gone quite barmy along with the rest of our institutions and in all seriousness asks men if they are pregnant.

Even our politicians say they cannot define what a woman is. And they run the country!

You remember the kindertransport?

Well, we are still just as kind-hearted and recently 100,000 Brits volunteered to take in Ukrainian refugees but we are now so ruled by bureaucracy and there are so many forms to fill in that most of the poor souls are still waiting for clearance.

It was the same when we had a rather nasty plague recently and former NHS workers volunteered to help: they faced a myriad of forms asking about their training in diversity.

Behold what we have done with your sacrifice.

Sorry, Guy Gibson.

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Oh, doesn't the media just love kicking a man when he is down?

Prince Andrew has been publicly humiliated, lost all his royal roles and been ostracised by charities that were once glad of his support. But that apparently is not enough. Now he must also be vilified for accompanying his frail, elderly mother on a family occasion.

Is that really the way we thank the Queen for decades of service and pay our respects to her husband's memory?

Prince Andrew has been convicted of nothing except repeatedly appalling judgment and pomposity. While he was threatening to fight Virginia Giuffre in court the media were saying it would be disastrous in Jubilee year, would overshadow the celebrations and would bring the Royal Family into disrepute.

Now he has settled out of court, the cry goes up that he must be guilty and should never show his face again.

Whatever happened to the notion of fair play?

Camelot is reportedly appealing against the decision to award the National Lottery Franchise elsewhere.

I understand the company's dismay but gradually the lottery has grown dull and stale, with costs rising, prizes falling and chances diminishing.

I haven't played an online instant win game for some years because I eventually gave up trying to find one that is fun and interactive rather than being just a glorified version of a scratch card.

So maybe it needs fresh thinking and enthusiastic leadership that is raring to go.

Yet it would be churlish not to thank Camelot for the 45billion it has raised for good causes.

The impact on sport has been particularly beneficial and, by funding smaller local projects, it has helped communities on a scale that no government could undertake.

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I am an unashamed admirer of the late Mary Whitehouse, who never gave up on a cause despite being ridiculed for expressing concerns about pornography which today we acknowledge having been prophetic.

So I had fully intended to watch the BBC series called Banned and which examines her life and campaigns.

I saw the first episode and smiled slightly when Gyles Brandreth admitted that he had stopped working on Lord Longford's Commission on porn because he had wanted to be "fashionable".

That speaks volumes about attitudes at the time but I shall watch no more, the reason being that there were images in this programme which I wish I had never seen and which I do not want in my mind.

It makes me wonder how Mary coped.

Whatever the failings of the Parole Board, I cannot cheer the prospect of a Government minister having the final say on a prisoner's release. There is a reason for separating the judiciary from politics.

Politicians are too influenced by the need to be popular and are the least likely mortals to resist the din of witch hunts and lynch mobs, especially around election time.

If the Parole Board must be second-guessed then leave it to a senior judge who needs nobody's vote.

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Elsewhere on this page, I refer to the practice of NHS workers asking a man if he is pregnant. I can just imagine the replies they might get. What next? A farmer taking the bulls in for milking?

A stud manager looking for a male appendage on a mare?

Not all the political correctness in the world will alter the biological facts of reproduction.

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It speaks volumes for our crazy society that it is sometimes difficult to spot an April Fool in the newspapers.

No story about political correctness is too ludicrous to be true nor yet any story about minute interpretation of the rule book.

Real-life is dafter than any scenario dreamed up by a comedian.

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Did Guy Gibson and his mates go to war in vain? asks ANN WIDDECOMBE - Express