In 2010, the former Tory minister (and now Catholic Herald columnist) Ann Widdecombe was offered a new job: David Cameron asked her to be ambassador to the Holy See. The first problem, Widdecombe told the Spectator in an interview last week, was that she had signed a contract to appear on Strictly Come Dancing. The Vatican said it was happy to wait – “so she prayed to God to send her a sign and he sent her a detached retina”. As a result, Widdecombe “had to be within three hours of Moorfields Eye Hospital at all times”.