Chris Huhne

I'd happily take points for my husband IF I believed he was nevertheless a safe driver AND he needed the car to keep his job and for the family to survive.

I have no conscience when it comes to looking after my family against the odds, as long as no-one is hurt or in danger.

But these people had other options - they could afford taxis.

He was asking for trouble when he betrayed her, wasn't he?

It reminds me of a neighbour when we first came to Australia. He had a marijuana plantation hidden in the bushland nearby. He used it to finance his heroin habit. Anyway, one day he bashed his wife up. She came running to me for help, I told her to lock herself in the lav, and then I fronted up to him as he came chasing after her. I used my best mature matron voice and told him to go home and calm down, and I would look after his missus. Unbelievably, he did as he as told.

But not long afterwards the police came and took him away - they'd 'found' his plantation.

The moral to the story is: if your wife knows your dark and dirty secrets, NEVER do wrong by her.

I don't understand how saying you were driving when you weren't is lying a little - it's a 100% lie. Why do people take motoring offences so lightly - he already had 9 points and speed kills - look at the organisations that campaign for harsher penalties. Think about one of your dgs/gd killed by a speeding motorist and then if that's not bad enough, imagine finding out he was free to drive because his wife told a bloody BIG lie. I'm steaming as you can see and they should both go to prison - I'm actually warming to the idea of a HunterF style prison
Calm down dear!!

Not if her intention was to ruin his career.

Lying to the police to save your child or husband from some terrible fate for a serious crime is one thing (wrong but understandable) but to lie for a few driving points seems perverse.

She must regret spilling the beans.

I think they should both get a heavy punishment but not sure prison would serve much purpose in this case. I think I would give them the longest possible community service punishment and make them do something they would normally think completely beneath them. Oh and a huge fine too!

I'm not as sympathetic to her as some of you because she is not a simpleton and is clearly a strong woman. She knew what she was doing when she took the points. She simply lost it when she rushed headlong into revenge when he went off with someone else and is now struggling to save herself. Isn't revenge supposed to be best served cold?

I feel I must be terribly naive to feel so horrified that those in public life, with so many more advantages than most, feel perfectly comfortable with telling lies and putting all their efforts into not being found out.

Don't they feel any sense of personal responsibility?

As for what these two have put their children through ... don't know whether to feel sad or angry.

I agree with Riverwalk. For whatever reason, she decided to go along with this scheme, and, having done so, is hardly an "innocent" in all this. I can quite understand Mrs H's fury on finding out about her husband's affair but she agreed to go along with his plan at the time and her "outing" of it (and her willingness to publicly expose her family to all the ensuing publicity and muck raking) says a lot about her.

I'm surprised at my own reaction to this story ...... on the one hand I think he's a creep and am expecting him to go to prison for perverting the course of justice by lying; on the other am assuming that Mrs H will get a fine or something lighter because .... well I don't why!!

At the time, they were married and presumably happy and she was willing to lie a little to the police ... but she hardly seems a meek dutiful wife.

So both equally guilty?

Absent - perfect summation!

I reckon he has just hammered home the final nail in the coffin of public trust in MPs and she hasn't done much for feminism. I think that they are a loathsome, corrupt couple with nothing to choose between them.

Very true - on the whole women don't murder the men who reject them - or their children.

Not as dangerous as men who are scorned though.

A woman scorned is a dangerous one. And her husband has just found that out,silly man.

Yet another member of Government (until now ,anyway,) who believe themselves above the Law,as many others have said. I'm not surprised that his son won't have anything to do with him, but strongly object to him referring to his father as AUTISTIC. He clearly has no knowledge of Autism,and this reference is an insult to all those who are on the spectrum. I just hope he gets a realistic punishment ,but that his ex wife is treated more leniently,in spite of being sucked into his devious plan.

Nick Freeman (aka Mr Loophole).

You're right - I am being hard on her. I suppose I have a problem with incredibly privileged people who think they can play by their own rules - I suppose that's most of them!! Most people don't have anything like their advantages and they've just chucked them away.

The brazen Hamiltons were booked for speeding in roadworks on the M62, They got off because the managed to convince the court that they sincerely couldn't remember who was driving. The solicitor they used was the famous one who often gets celebrities off when they're charged with driving offences. Can't remember his name.

The thing that is so predictable is the multimillionaire going to those lengths to avoid losing his licence, when it would cause him no hardship at all! A typical case of being above the law and "Don't you know who I am?" Hope his lawyers hit him with a humungus bill as well!

It's probably quite common for a person with no or few points to take the points of someone who already has enough to be banned from driving.

A friend of mine moved to Australia and said it's quite common there.

Not all people who get points are speeding maniacs. I have had two fines for speeding, both times doing about 36 in a 30 mile limit but late at night with no-one around. In one case, the limit was later changed to 40.

Hell hath no fury..etc. At the time she probably thought she was protecting his career, with an element of self-preservation involved as well. I do feel you're being a bit hard on her, bluebell, although I, too, think she should definitely be found guilty and sentenced accordingly.

I wonder how she would have felt if , after her illegal act, he had killed or injured anyone whilst speeding again - he did get caught using a mobile phone some years later. And I hope she's proud of what she's helped to do to her son - marital coercion - good grief and it only applies to wives ! I hope she has a prison term as well quite frankly

Jolly silly woman to have done it in the first place, and even sillier to own up to it and be hoisted by her own petard, and a selfish,shallow, stupid man who should have had the courage to admit his speeding, which I abhor, and faced the consequences....

There must be a lot of people who are very annoyed with him. Lib dems are because he was one of their cabinet members and has embarrassed them. Tories probably are because they are going to have to throw everything into fighting a byelection in a marginal seat against their coalition partners. Lib dems ditto.
People in energy world are annoyed because he was potentially an excellent minister in this area. Rare to get a politician who had run something in the real world and understood the area he was assigned to.
And probably all politicians annoyed too, because he had lied and done his bit to damage the reputation of all politicians, just as the expenses scandal was fading into the background.
Have to say that marital coercion has a dickensian ring to it. But I guess if faced with a prison sentence you'd let your lawyers do what they could.
His wife a fool to leak the story to the press. The perils of exacting revenge in a public arena.
I can't help gawping at the name Carina Trimingham. Sounds like a fictional character from one of those Posy cartoons the Guardian used to run.

Ana

True, cash for questions wasn't it.

Neil and Christine Hamilton?