Chris Huhne pleads guilty

[Workingman]

Why as it taken so long?

Had it been white van man Chris and his partner, Bernice, they would have both been charged and dealt with after only a few months.

[KateLMead]

Never could stand the creep.. Didn't he leave his wife for a Lesbian (researcher?)

[TheOstrich]

I do think there is one sad aspect through, and that is his obvious estrangement with his son who, reading between the lines, pretty much shopped him to the police by virtue of the release of emails. That said, I presume the son released the emails, or did the rossers get them some other way?

[Workingman]

Peter Huhne was right to pressure his father, and there is also a shocking lack of action from the police to the original offence.

Huhne was an MEP at the time. He was a serial speeder. Had he been charged and found guilty he would have been jailed. Had that happened he would never have been allowed to stand as an MP.

Effectively, he has been taking public money under false pretences for the last nine years. That is down to his lack of morals and the ineffective performance of the police.

[Suff]

I'm not so black and white about this. I do recall some government scum... err Minister, telling the press that it was up to the pool of normal drivers of a vehicle as to whom was to take the points. There was discussion in the press as to whether this meant that families could choose to share the points in order to keep a main breadwinner on the road.

If that is true, as I remember this, then it is a change in government stance, spite in the case of a wife scorned and really very little to do with "perversion of the course of justice".

I'm going to add frilly knickers to the pink skirt I'm ordering for our country......

We are so UK insular about this. On Saturday night I had to explain to one of the dancers that Germany had an "advisory" speed limit on the Autobahns and that it was quite legal to drive at 200mph on a 2 lane autobahn with worse road surface and less hard shoulder than many UK dual carriageways. Also the fact that the number of deaths on Germany Autobahns, per vehicle travelling on them not per head of population (half of Europe drives on the Autobahns), is much lower than the UK.

This is a pure case of spite, press activism against an unpopular government and a legal system which says one thing one year and another thing the next and then bases prosecution of an old offense on the laws in place today as opposed to the laws in place at the time of the offense.

I'm not jumping on this whole Evil Scumbag bandwagon no matter how much I dislike his politics or his political affiliations. If his wife didn't want to take the ticket at the time she should have said so. To drag this up later to try and destroy his career, no matter how aggrieved she feels, is, to my mind, just wrong. In the end, in the dry legalese, she perverted the course of justice and he was an accessory.

Were I the judge I'd give her a 6 month custodial sentence and him a 3 month suspended, which does not ban him from sitting in parliament as he'd need a custodial sentence of more than 9 months for that.

Look at it logically here. What are they trying to stop? Wives taking the fine for the husband? The only way to do that is to make it prohibitively painful for the wife to do so.

I know it's not a popular position, but it's the way I feel.

[cromwell]

I do think there is one sad aspect through, and that is his obvious estrangement with his son

I agree Os; that is very sad.
Suff, I'm not saying that Huhne is an evil person, but his attitude of "rules are for other people" which is so prevalent amongst our political elite, makes me happy that he has been caught out. Unlucky mate! He just found out that no matter how unlikely it is, rules still do occassionally get applied to those who think that they are above them.
Also, he's a fool. If he had just gritted his teeth and taken the points this would all have been forgotten about by now.

Geting on his high moral horse for ten years, denying everything and then when it's obvious he is caught, owning up at the last minute.. dearie me.

[Workingman]

I am still concerned that there was an attempted whitewash, by all sides, in this affair.

At the time of the incident Huhne was an MEP, a serial speeder with nine points, and well connected. His wife, Vicky Pryce, was Chief Economic Adviser at the Department for Trade and Industry, so also well connected. Had he taken the points he would have got a fine and a ban: end of. Instead he and his wife came up with the story of her being the driver - it is not an unknown tactic used by those with lots of points.

The police must have known about this scam, they are not that stupid, and a few phone calls would have cleared everything up. It is what would have happened to white van man. The replies would have proved that Pryce could not have been driving the car as she was at a meeting in London and that, therefore, she and Huhne were attempting to pervert the course of justice, at which point they could have been charged.

[pederito1]

I dont know about whitewash, WM but there is something distinctly fishy about it and what a furore starting with such a trivial matter as speeding. Certainly speed limits on motorways should be advisory and every driver should be aware that if driving at an inappropriate speed causes an accident then he should expect to be done for it. However unpleasant he might appear to be I think it is Mrs who is the real Jezebel.

[KateLMead]

When my husband was alive I went to visit my mother in Bedfordshire, it was winter really nasty weather and
being night time the visibility was shocking, from Stow on the Wold I observed a police car tailgating me, it distracted me and irritated me, finally he put his lights on sped to the front of me and signalled me to stop..
"Where have you come from" said he I told him that I had been to visit my aged
mother in Bedfordshire, he requested not too pleasantly for me to open the boot. I did so, he pulled a Grandmother clock out that I had taken to my mothers neighbour for repair. "Where did you get this from"said he suspiciously, I explained that I had taken it to my mothers neighbour to be repaired and I gave him his phone number, He then said he wanted to see my tax disk, I gave it to him and to my shock he said it was a photocopy!!! "Rubbish" said I, furious by this time!! He then said I should accompany him to Tewksbury police station, I was beside myself.He then telephoned the clockmaker who confirmed my statement at 9.p.m. at night having carried my grandmother clock into the station.. and I called my husband in a rage telling him I had been arrested and asking him what the hell he was thinking of, to my fury he was roaring with laughter... "You have not been arrested" said the coppers in the station. Seemingly my husband had taken the tax disk off of our other Mercedes and stuck it on the one I was driving. I was told following "the police ringing the clock maker that I could leave".. They gave me the clock back at that point being furious I threw it and smashed it on the floor and told them to keep it... I was even more furious to observe the police grinning..I was in a rage all the way home and you can imagine my greeting to my husband.. However I calmed down rang the chief superintendent and due to extenuating circumstances the case was dropped.
"Lucky Me"!! I was of course guilty of association even though I was not aware of what my spouse had been up too.

[pederito1]

That was a dreadful experience, Kate. I suppose you were targeted because you were driving a Mercedes Benz. My bad experience was when Pep had an appointment in Harley Street and stopped in Regents Park outside a loo but was immediately clamped by police. Straight in the loo and out but they said we had been there ages which was a lie, they then hung around waiting to be offered a bribe bit I did not fall for that one.