Sometime we are entitled to ask if a public representative has had a funny turn.

Such is the case with Reading East Conservative MP, Rob Wilson, who has suggested that the Commons should debate the merits of, ‘The Iron Lady’, a cinematographic work based on the career of former PM, Margaret Thatcher. According to Mr Wilson, such a discussion would be justified as he thought the film “intrusive and unfair” and depicted Thatcher in the present as, “old, lonely, fragile and suffering from dementia”.

Let’s make several things perfectly clear:

1. Mr Wilson, who was in the SDP during the Thatcher premiership, is entitled to his opinion.
2. It is my opinion that Margaret Thatcher was the single most destructive and malevolent influence on British society during my lifetime, responsible for immese and lasting damage to the communities like those in which I grew up and to the life chances of millions born then and since.
3. She does not, however, deserve dementia. No one does.

It is, however important that dementia is understood and discussed. Margaret Thatcher was certainly a figure of significance, undoubtedly had a sharp mind and was a massively talented politician, even if she was fundementally wrong. She is just as vulnerable to dementia as a housewife from Felling-on-Tyne. That of itself is important to depict. She is not the first public figure to decline in this way and probably not even the first Prime Minister as it is widely assumed that Harold Wilson had a similar affliction.

Why this should be a problem is beyond me. People with dementia are done a dis-service by Mr Wilson’s attitude. It is wrong to treat this condition as something to be ashamed of. It affects 820,000 people in the UK, is growing and by 2051 will affect 1.7 million – one in every three over the age of 80. People need to know what it is, why the care for those with the condition needs to improve and why we need greater investment in research. To address these issues we need more awareness of dementia and how it affects people. Films and TV programmed that depict the condition as it is help improve awareness.

Ironically on the same day as Mr Wilson was sounding off a report on the dire state of care for dementia patients in UK hospitals was being published, receiving blanket coverage.

But even more alarming than Mr Wilson’s desire to bury away dementia in the same old prejudiced way is his seeming belief that it is in any way the business of Parliament to express any sort of view on the merits or otherwise of works of artistic expression. What would be the purpose of such a debate? What business of the State in a free society is what kind of view a work of any art form might express? What business of the State in a free society is the content of any entertainment created commercially or otherwise beyond the prevention of harm to the vulnerable for which we have certification bodies? How does Mr Wilson square this meddling with the supposed ideals of his party on personal and commercial freedom? How about ‘none’, ‘none’, ‘none’ and ‘with difficulty’.

Such wild inconsistency springs from the mentality that prioritises turning up at the opening of an envelope so long as there is a photo opportunity at the end of it and the desire to make any statement so long as it get’s one in the papers. In short it is just crass. I wonder how many of Mr Wilson’s constituents in Reading East regard the depiction on the silver screen of a frail, elderly woman with a common illness as frail and elderly as a subject meriting debate by it’s MP and his colleagues? Might there be more urgent concerns that merit his attention?

On this occasion Mr Wilson has made himself look crassly unaware, intellectually inconsistent and, frankly, rather silly.