Small gist for how to compute unicode whitespace (since it doesn't exists as a constant like `string.whitespace` does)

unicode_whitespace.py

# This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain
# using the Unlicense. Please refer to <http://unlicense.org/>

def _unicode_whitespace():
    # Yes, it is bad practice to import modules in a function, 
    # but we are trying to avoid leaving garbage around once we are done generating our values.
    import re
    import sys

    ws_re = re.compile(r'\s')
    uchars = map(chr, range(sys.maxunicode+1))
    uws_matches = map(ws_re.fullmatch, uchars)
    uws_matches_filt = filter(None, uws_matches)
    unicode_whitespace = ''.join(m.string for m in uws_matches_filt)
    return unicode_whitespace

unicode_whitespace = _unicode_whitespace()

# NOTE: clean up the namespace since we don't need this anymore
del _unicode_whitespace