On expertise

Poor old Chris Huhne. After losing his position at DECC and spending some time at Her Majesty's pleasure, he is now forced to look for gainful employment elsewhere.

According to his website, this "expert on energy and climate change" is available to speak at public events (and children's parties?).

I can hardly contain my excitement.

But you have to say, in the wake of Dieter Helm's comments about Huhne's disastrous gamble on rising energy prices, you have to wonder whether that's the kind of expert that anyone is going to want to hear from.

Except maybe Gamblers Anonymous.

Friends

An interesting bit of intelligence from a correspondent: Steve Jones is a close friend of Chris Huhne's.

So when the BBC were casting around for someone to look at impartiality in the BBC's science output they picked a man whose wife worked for the BBC and who was pals with the deep-green climate change secretary of the time. I guess he ticked every box.

Interesting.

Huhnebris

BH favourite Chris Huhne has attempted a relaunch of his political career, blaming his fall from power at DECC on a conspiracy by the Murdoch press. If I'm understanding his case correctly, it wasn't the Mail that made all the initial running on the investigation of his case, and lawbreaking and marital infidelity by a cabinet minister - not normally the subject of media coverage - was only forced into the conciousness of an otherwise uninterested public through the relentless campaigning of Mr Murdoch's newspapers (in league with big oil and the devil himself).

Or something like that.

Anyone convinced?

Dellers on Huhne

Really good piece by James Delingpole on the Huhne case:

I feel about Huhne as I feel about all politicians: I really don't give a damn how many rent boys they sleep with or whether they're heavily into heroin or oranges or how serially unfaithful they are or how often they break the speed limit. Not even whether or not they beat their dogs.

What I do care about, very much, is the immense damage their ill-judged, ill-considered policies are doing to this country. Sometimes – especially in the field of environmentalism, for some reason – their incompetence borders on the criminal. Sometimes – naming no names, but I think we know exactly who we mean – their corruption and sleaze goes beyond it.

There are some very bad dangerous people in politics right now. But it's their policies I want them nailed on, not their personalities.

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."

Cartoons by Josh

Huhne pleads guilty

From the BBC

Chris Huhne admits perverting the course of justice

Former cabinet minister Chris Huhne has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice over claims his ex-wife Vicky Pryce took speeding points for him a decade ago.

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"Eastleigh’s high profile MP Chris Huhne appearing today along with his former wife Vasiliki ‘Vicky’ Pryce on charges of perverting the course of justice in relation to a 2003 speeding conviction." reports the Eastleigh News.

We are not allowed to say much as there is a gagging order on the proceedings, but you can comment on the online story, linked above, but be aware "Comments which fail to praise Mr Huhne may be deleted!!"

Via numerous mentions on Twitter.

Cartoons by Josh

Update on Jan 23, 2013 by Josh

Well, that didn't last long. The Eastleigh News story has now been removed. 

I also took the opportunity to correct my spelling ;-)

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Cartoons by Josh

Huhne to face charges?

Guido Fawkes has just tweeted about Chris Huhne, our Energy and Climate Change Secretary:

+ + + Vicky Pryce: “”I understand there will be charges” + + +: BBC correspondent tweeting unconfirmed rumour: V...

Toast?

Update on Feb 3, 2012 by Bishop Hill

Charges it is.

A short pause for celebration, followed, no doubt, by the (inevitable) appointment of someone just as bad.

Update on Feb 3, 2012 by Bishop Hill

George Monbiot tweets

I'm sad to see #ChrisHuhne go. He's been one of the few voices of (relative) sanity in the Coalition.

Huhne is not telling the truth

Andrew Neil, writing at his BBC blog, has done some thinking on UK energy prices.

...retail prices have risen again and are now above their 2008 peak. Despite lower wholesale prices compared with three years ago our fuel bills are higher than three years ago.

So, contrary to the Energy Secretary's position, higher fossil fuel prices cannot explain our current very high energy bills. And, contrary to the energy companies, they are not merely passing on the extra wholesale costs of energy.

Two further thoughts. It is clear that the energy market is not functioning like a proper competitive market, otherwise retail prices would not just go up in line with wholesale prices but come down too.

And maybe the Huhne green agenda, involving huge subsidies to wind generation, which end up on all our fuel bills, is much larger than we've been told.

This is a good point. Huhne is telling us things that can't be true about energy prices and meanwhile refuses to release his own figures on the impact of his green energy policies.

Would it be wrong of me to be suspicious?

Huhne mangles economics

Tim Worstall is quite magnificently rude about Chris Huhne's grasp of economics and his (ahem) forgetfulness about what Lord Stern actually said in his report.