HUHNE & PRYCE : CONTINUING A LONG TRADITION !

A couple of weeks ago, Chris Huhne, disgraced Liberal Democrat MP, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and will undoubtedly go to prison before very long. His political career is over.

 

Following Huhne's acceptance of his guilt, a jury found it impossible to arrive at a verdict in the case of his former wife, Vicky Pryce, who pleaded not guilty to the same offence on the grounds that Huhne had coerced her into complicity with his wrong doings. She employed a rarely used defence of marital coersion (they were married at the time of the offences) and it seems that this confused the jury. A second trial was convened and the new jury has now delivered a guilty verdict on Ms Pryce, rejecting her claims to have been coerced; she may well also go to prison within the next week or 2.

 

Pryce had become a frequent figure on BBC television programmes. She is, apparently, a respected, though left wing, economist of some standing and those of like mind at the Beeb, of whom there seem to be many, obviously saw her as a fellow traveller. The fact that she was actually a vindictive woman hell-bent on destroying the husband who'd left her for another woman seems not have bothered them, as she continued to appear even after Huhne was initially arrested.

 

While this whole saga is a very public and extreme example of what can happen when relationships break down, it's also yet another scandal to affect the political establishment and the Liberal Democrats in particular. From the days of Lloyd George, who was an acknowledged womaniser, through the scandals around Jeremy Thorpe and Paddy Ashdown, the Liberals have had trouble keeping out of trouble. More recently, Simon Oaten and Charles Kennedy have caused them serious embarrassment and now it's Huhne going to prison along with his ex-wife. Will it never end ?

CORNERED FOX HAD NOWHERE ELSE TO RUN.

Finally, and not before time, Liam Fox has resigned. That he hung on so long says a huge amount for the arrogance and total lack of any sense of morality that is so prevalent in modern day politicians.

Whether Fox really resigned or was sacked, he had to go. For a minister in such an important position to be guilty of, at the very least, 'poor judgement', is wholly unacceptable and he should have gone as soon as the details of his actions began to emerge; given the apparently dubious nature of Mr Werrity's business affairs and relationship with Fox, it's surely questionable whether Fox should have been appointed in the first place.

Whatever the truths in all this, we've hopefully seen the last, at least for some years, of the incompetent Mr Fox, for which we should all be grateful.

PACK CLOSES IN ON FOX.

As the furore over Liam Fox rumbles on, Government and Tory politicians do their level best to divert attention. Today, it's reported that Chris Grayling, that fishiest of Tory ministers, is supporting the continuation of Fox's career by saying that he thought the days when the private lives of politicians were considered of relevance to their professional activities were long gone. He might wish !

Comments like this show just how wriggly our politicians are. I really couldn't care what Fox, or Grayling or any of the rest of them do behind closed doors and with the lights on, off, dimmed or turned to some extreme part of the spectrum, except when it impacts on their public roles. If Fox has been abusing his public position by involving a close personal friend in matters of state in which he has no place, that bothers me; if he has compounded the problem by being disingenuous about the situation, that bothers me even more. If Fox has been in a sexual relationship with someone, and then lied in order to cover it up, that would bother me, not because of the relationship but because of the lied. Fox has admitted to 'serious errors of judgement' and, in a Secretary of State for Defence', that horrifies me.

In a case like this, simply saying 'Sorry' is not enough. Any of Fox's friends and colleagues who claim that it is are clearly living in a very different world from the rest of we poor mortals, whose feet would not have touched the floor as we were thrown out on our ears by outraged bosses for any similar offences. Fox has to go, and the sooner the better.