There are the obvious ones: that all politicians are lying scumbags for example. But here\’s the real lesson:
cheating on a wife who has provided you with an alibi is a pretty stupid thing to do
Quite.
There are the obvious ones: that all politicians are lying scumbags for example. But here\’s the real lesson:
cheating on a wife who has provided you with an alibi is a pretty stupid thing to do
Quite.
Aren’t both lessons easily drawn into one in the observation that Chris Huhne must be a born cheat?
From out of his own nature, he’s torn his family apart and destroyed his career. I’m not feeling particularly gleeful about this one: he’s made himself an object lesson for the rest of us, but not in the way one might wish to be.
Well, at least don’t divorce them.
It’s funny, really, the catalogue of things that Huhne has done isn’t that uncommonly bad, all told.
– cheated on, and divorced, his wife (quite common)
– exceeded the speed limit (let he who is without sin &c)
– asked his wife to take points for him (I didn’t know this was common, but apparently it is).
It’s just that, as far as I can see, no one likes him. Well, that and a certain amount of hubris.
It’s worth noting that Huhne was in danger of losing his licence. He already had nine points on his licence at the time of the M11 speeding offence, and the previous year he had received a three month ban after driving while using a mobile phone. That speeding ticket could have cost him a 12-month ban.
So while he has done many stupid things, the original decision (to give his wife the points) would have seemed rather sensible at the time.
I’ve always found it curious that it’s notionally a 12-point system, but most things are at least 3 points, including speeding, so it’s effectively a 4 point system.
Huhne’s stupidity probably resides in his arrogance/indifference to others and a limitless belief in his own entitlement.
A white collar psychopath perhaps.
“That speeding ticket could have cost him a 12-month ban.”
So we must conclude that he was, by the standards set by the law (which, of course, he had a great deal more influence over than any of us), a dangerous driver.. a serial offender who presented such a risk to other road users that he needed to be removed from the road.
He broke the law, and then he broke it again to ensure that he could continue to be a danger to others. It’s practically ‘attempted manslaughter’. Throw away the key.
A similar Australian case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Einfeld#Controversies
It features a senior judge rather than a politician. It starts with the lesson that it’s a bad idea to claim that someone else is driving your car when you know that person to be dead. It then gets worse.
For me the biggest problem with Huhne isn’t the lie, but that he got caught. It seems pretty much par for the course for politicians to be dishonest, but Huhne’s dishonest and amazingly incompetent to boot. It’s not like it would have been hard for him to get away with things even after his divorce.
1) I wish to register a complaint. Tim failed to refer to the twat as “former Grauniad Economics Editor, Chris Huhne”.
2) From this morning’s Telegraph: “He was caught using his mobile phone while driving 16 days after the speeding offence, resulting in a six-month ban anyway.” Peals of merry laughter.
I reckon he made a judgement along the lines of “fuck it, she’d go down too” and fucked off to a live of bliss with the mistress.
Personal misjudgements are rarely this catastrophic.
Another lesson: WKPD re Vicky Pryce – “She is currently in a relationship with the ex-minister and former MP Denis MacShane, who resigned as an MP in 2012 due to submitting false expenses invoices stemming from the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal)”.
She really can pick ’em, eh?
Crickey. Why did Shakespeare get these situations so right, so often?
A passing thought on the Huhne trial.
If he’d succeeded in wriggling off the hook, it would’ve left the ex Mrs H even more firmly ensconced on the perverting the course of justice hotseat for giving false evidence in his prosecution. So he’d be contriving to get her banged up for something she didn’t do. Nice. Bet that would’ve played well with his son.