Ann Winterton

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Jane Ann, Lady Winterton (born March 6, 1941 as Jane Ann Hodgson) is the British Member of Parliament for Congleton, and was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1983.

She became opposition Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in May 2002, and was sacked the next year for telling the following joke at a rugby club dinner:

An Englishman, a Cuban, a Japanese man and a Pakistani were all on a train.

The Cuban threw a fine Havana cigar out the window. When he was asked why, he replied: "They are ten a penny in my country’."

The Japanese man threw an expensive Nikon camera out of the carriage, adding: "These are ten a penny in my country."

The Englishman then picked up the Pakistani and threw him out of the train window.

When the other travellers asked him to account for his actions, he said: "They are ten a penny in my country."' [1]

In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip (suspension from the party) removed for telling the following joke at a private dinner (which referenced the recent death of several dozen illegal immigrant Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay), and refusing to apologise:

One shark turned to the other to say he was fed up chasing tuna and the other said, 'Why don't we go to Morecambe Bay and get some Chinese?' [2]

A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and the whip was restored to Winterton [3]. Lord Taylor, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, condemned the restoral and said she was not fit to be an MP.[4].

In September 2005 (following the May general election) Winterton said she that Britain is a country where

crime is out of control ... and where thousands of illegal immigrants are waved in with no checks on whether they are criminals or potential terrorists", and

We live in times of tremendous change, but the United Kingdom is still, thankfully, a predominantly white, Christian country. " "Some might say we are now paying the price for the so-called 'benefits' of the multi-cultural society, the product of almost uncontrolled immigration and the abuse of asylum." [5]

She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, who is also a Conservative MP representing the neghbouring constituency of Macclesfield.

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