Monday
Feb042013
by 
Josh
Josh Huhne cartuhne - Josh 200
Chris Huhe pleads guilty and the BBC chief political correspondent Norman Smith says: "We can safely say that his political career is over."
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Reader Comments (75)
Delingpole's blog reflections on this, featuring Josh's cartoon (well done Josh) is very good indeed
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100201314/chris-huhne-right-result-wrong-reason/
"I've never had any licence points, so I don't know the procedure, but is it feasible for you to drive someone else's car, trigger some points, intercept the letter to them as registered keeper and pay up without telling them?
IOW, do you need someone else's co-operation to dump your points on them or can you do it without their knowing right away?"
You are legally obliged to disclose the name of the driver, then you have to send the licence counterpart to the court to have the points recorded on it, those points are recorded at DVLA as well. Points expire after 4 years but don't count for a totting up disquilification after 3 years.
So if you had borrowed their car and got flashed, you could, if you were quick with the post get the initial notice; have the case recorded against you and deal with it directly. To pass points to them you would have to bag their license; intercept it on return; then stop them from reading it for four years, then lose it and have them get a new counterpart.
Career over? Doubt it. There is always an opening in politics for a proven liar.
Huhne has been described as a Limp Dem big beast. We can but hope that a long custodial sentence will result in him being tagged with the epithet Brontosawarse. Punish him where he sinned! Carina Trimingham unplugged.
Jack Savage what Mortgage Fraud Mandleson
Delingpole makes a valid point, but there are special circumstances here. Huhne was a government minister, hence one of those responsible for the plethora of speed cameras. He was at DECC, which keeps telling us not to travel by car, not only does he do so, but he can't keep his foot off the accelerator to the extent that he managed to accumulate enough points to get banned, even without the ones he palmed off on his wife. I don't know about the other points, but the ones he evaded were from a speed camera in a roadworks area which was actually there for a legitimate reason.
@ Mike
Thanks. It sounds like it's easier to take someone else's points without their ever knowing than it is to dump your own onto someone else without their knowing.
It would be an appalling risk you were making them take, though, even if you succeeded. If they were involved in an accident and tried to claim, their licence would be checked at that point by the insurance company and the claim could presumably be denied. Your own perjury would then look like theirs - took the points, then lied about it to their insurers.
Sheesh.
Mrs Huhne's evidence will be interesting.
Oh, and the fact that he is loaded so losing his licence would be no big deal, he could hire a driver out of his spare change.
"Delingpole's blog reflections on this, featuring Josh's cartoon (well done Josh) is very good indeed"
Well it is a bit like Al Capone getting done for tax-dodging, it's a result but it isn't as satisfying as it ought to be.
While it is nice to know that a MP who has been so honest as to be found lying in such a fashion has eventually admitted his perfidiousness, I do have a certain amount of antipathy as to the nature of his entrapment – the “speed camera”. I, too, have been caught; not by the flasher, but by the more devious “average speed”. The sum total of evidence shown to me consisted of three photos of my car, with no identification of the cameras, nothing identifiable in the background, a group of numbers, and an explanatory note of these number – which had no correlation with the numbers presented! Without a doubt, had it been presented as evidence in a court of law, it would have been laughed out with hoots of derision.
As with all these speed cameras, it was a case of guilty, and it was up to me to prove my own innocence. So much for “innocent until proven…” To subject my case to proper judicial procedure would have cost me most of my life’s savings. I considered it a lot cheaper to pay. So much for British justice, heh?
Cracking cartoon, though.
Having read the damning texts from Huhne's son (and Guido is getting some stick for publishing them) I must admit I began to feel a bit sorry for Huhne. But then again Huhne does appear to have been a slimeball and what goes round usually comes round. Huhne is in no way solely responsible for the UK's disastrous renewables policy - in Scotland I pin much of the blame on Ross Finnie (aka Captain Mannering) who was the first to set ludicrously high renewable electricity targets, a policy which was fully endorsed by all the Labour Ministers and then accentuated by the SNP when they came to power. South of the border, I suspect the Brown government, Milliband and huskie-hugging Cameron are just as culpable wrt the renewables scam as Huhne, Clegg and Davey. The damage was done years ago when the FIT and ROC subsidies were set, and the real culprits are still in DECC. Do
if I had to choose between the subsidies being withdrawn or Huhne being sent to prison, it would be the former which would bring the biggest smile to my face. Of course, in an ideal world...
I did have to laugh, though, at the Edinburghers who wrote to the Evening Standard when the Dalkeith bypass connection to the City Bypass was being built, to complain that they had got speeding tickets in the roadworks despite slowing down for the cameras and how should they be expected to know what "average speed cameras" were! Police should have gone back and done them for "attempting to pervert".
Evening *News* I meant.
Re: Mike Ozanne
Mike lived with Vicky so getting the license and intercepting her mail would not be a problem, especially if he (or his assistant) usually handled incoming mail. As for the license counterpart, I haven't seen mine for many years. It is safely tucked away in case I ever need it.
Long standing residents of Eastleigh must be wondering if God hates them, Stephen Milligan *and* Chris Huhne. Still they could move to Winchester... Oh... hang on ...wait....
Having read the (shocking) texts, I note that nowhere does Huhne senior say 'sorry'. I wonder if he ever has?
J4R
"Mrs Huhne's evidence will be interesting."
Indeed. She seems pretty smart to me, and had the wit to plead 'guilty but coerced'. That can't help her ex-husband much, but I daresay that's the point!
Josh
Hope you didn't break the speed limit in your rush to get this cartoon out.
However, if you did: best not deny it hey.
Brilliant pencil work.
Yes, I watch Sky for the news and then flick over to BBC - to see what tomorrow's Guardian will have to say about it.
I wonder, is that an electric car he's driving?
Pity the poor soul who has to spend 23 hours a day locked up with him .
I've been wracking my brains but can't find even one redeeming feature in this "mans" make up .
Perhaps prison will teach him humility .
Feb 4, 2013 at 9:54 PM | Anthony Watts
If so, perhaps Huhne's path to oblivion is somewhat mirrored by that of his choice of car:
Insight: Electric cars head toward another dead end:
Huhne drives a Noddy car
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2012/2/3/lib-diminished-josh-144.html
Chris Huhne is a politician who has done immense damage to Britain. He deserves to go to jail. Whether he goes there for the right or wrong reason is relatively unimportant
"Chris Huhne is a politician who has done immense damage to Britain. He deserves to go to jail. Whether he goes there for the right or wrong reason is relatively unimportant"
But if you had a serial killing farmer who'd driven the bodies to the swamp in his tractor, you'd be a bit peeved if he got done for using red diesel on a public road rather than mass murder.....:-)