Ann Widdecombe: Send Binge Drinkers To Court (PICTURES)

Can Ann Widdecombe Solve The Binge Drinking Crisis?

Ann Widdecombe, the former prisons minister and Strictly Come Dancing contestant, has found a novel way to deal with binge drinkers - bringing back "the concept of shame" by sending offenders to court.

She told the Radio Times about her idea to deter anyone found "incapable."

"If the police carried out the occasional big blitz in the city centres on a Friday night, drafting in extra manpower and pursuing every single person who was drunk in A&E or incapable on the streets, then people going out specifically to get drunk would risk finding themselves in court on the Monday with their names and photographs in the papers," she said.

The former Tory MP told the Radio Times magazine that the police should also pursue people who end up drunk in A&E.

"I went out with half a dozen young women in their twenties to see how they 'enjoyed' themselves on such evenings and why they did it," she said.

"The group included a scientist, a nurse and two teachers ... Nobody I interviewed considered getting drunk a matter of shame and I ended the programme as baffled as I began."

The solution, according to Widdecombe?

"Drinking to excess in public has to become socially unacceptable in the way that smoking is now."

It's not the first time Widdecombe has branched out in her post-parliamentary career. The Tory politician has starred in Celebrity Fit Club, acted as agony aunt for the Guardian, and guest hosted the BBC's Have I Got News for You.

See below for a slideshow of her best moments:

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