Vicky Price

Just to be perfectly clear. i do NOT follow DB on twitter!
But sometimes people retweet things and they appear in front of you.

A tragedy for all concerned, most particularly for the children who will have suffered horribly through all of this. But however much one feels sorry for the horrible consequences CH and VP now face, they broke the law, they lied (and lied some more) and they each treated the other with utter contempt.

However rich, successful, clever you are, you are not immune from having serious character flaws.

There seems to be some heated comments over the Vicky Pryce scenario. If they go to jail it's going to cost us the tax payer to "put them up" for whatever time. They aren't murderers but do need to be punished. We can't go on having one rule for one and one for another and time off for "guilty". Stinks! Hit them where it hurts..in their pockets and if a custodial sentence is deemed necessary then make them report every weekend.. 48 hours no perks! Mind you our legal system needs looking at...but that's another storey!,!

Jess Had me worried there for a minute.

Or *Grannytwoshoes^, make them do community service with flourescent jackets on.

Oh - I did get my doo-dahs muddled up there didn't I?

It Huhne had taken the points in the first place, he would have lost his licence for a period - probably no more than a year. He would not have been unique among politicians and could well have afforded to employ a driver. It wasn't embarrassment he wanted to avoid - it was the inconvenience. He should have thought of that before he accumulated so many speeding points.

Actually, I think we are all getting disgusted with the current tales of the rich and shameless. There's Berlusconi and Strauss-Kahn with their tacky and sometimes illegal sexual antics, a deeply hypocritical gay bashing cardinal who turns out to be gay, and somewhat predatory himself, Jimmy Saville - nuff said there, Lance Armstrong, Australian footballers of various codes and other sports people using performance drugs, cricketers and others conspiring with bookies for match fixing, politicians of all hues behaving disgustingly....the list is never ending. Most of these people get obscene amounts of money too.

Meanwhile we lead quiet and honest lives, often struggling to manage, while that lot in charge ruin everything.

No wonder there's a bit of schadenfreude and utter disgust about!

_____________

Well said, Joan!

the DB Tweet said "there are some nasty bitter women who will ruin lives there children but Vicky Price has to be the ultimate"
the errors of grammar are his.
I am still shocked by his sexist venom this morning so I thought I'd share it with you

Personally, I feel Price and Huhne deserved each other. As ever with our generation and below,theye put themselves and their emotions first and if that means sacrificing the children so what.

I certainly find it hard to understand how any woman could spend years with Chris Huhne, I always though he was a slimy creature before any of this blew up. But, as she did stay with him I can see that the way she was dumped would have driven her to do any thing she could to destroy him, and who can say they wouldn't do the same?

I think if my own husband decided he preferred someone else I would not want anything more to do with him, in any way. I would see the kids were OK, and the assets were divided fairly, and then walk away from him.

BUT, it hasn't happened so I'm not really one to say. I do know that revenge is not in my nature, nor is self-destruction.

She was a bit of a high flyer herself so maybe it was ego v ego.

I'm pretty certain I would never want to know either of them personally.

I feel a custodial sentence is harsh. If they had not been a high profile couple I am not sure prison would be considered.

I think community service more appropriate and /or a heavy fine. Really think we need weekend prison: report in at 6:00 p.m. on a Friday and released 7:30 Monday a.m. & do community service /training whilst in custody. No mobiles/ ipads etc. That way people might maintain any work they have which in terms of re-offending is a good thing.

At the time of the 'points taking' the children were still quite young.. maybe she thought the publicity that would have ensued would harm her kids so agreed to take the points!

'O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!'

People who are convicted of perverting justice rarely avoid prison. She's likely to get about 3 months, and be out in 6 weeks. That's if the judge doesn't take umbrage about the way she has tried to manipulate things, and the failure to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity. She's at risk of getting a higher sentence, but I would bet on her lawyer putting in an immediate appeal against length of sentence if she does.

The Huhnes have not been convicted of swapping speeding points. They have been convicted of perverting the course of justice. This is a very serious offence, regardless of the relative triviality of the actions that, in their case, led to the crime. Those found guilty of PTCOJ are rightly sent to prison. There is no reason to think that their sentence will be any different from anybody elses who commits this crime, although an argument could be made that given the education they had and professions they were in, they were better placed than many other people to realise the seriousness nature of the crime they were committing.

Some years ago I was asked to fill in a legal form incorrectly which I would not do and one of the reasons I would not do it was because I knew that do so was a crime and if found out I would be prosecuted, end up with a criminal record and probably a prison sentence, and no, it was not DH or any member of my family who asked me to do this and I actually sympathetically understood why the request had been made.

Yes, it is always better to behave ethically, because no amount of money can make up for lost peace of mind.

A driver is an habitual speeder. He fails to learn, even when he has lots of points, and then he finally gets caught again. This man should have his licence withdrawn to give him time to reflect on his dangerous behaviour. Helping him to continue dangerous behaviour by lying is not a good idea. Speeding is not always a victimless crime - it can kill and maim. So why should we not think taking the points is that serious...? Maybe because we are all (well lots of us) guilty of breaking the speed limit from time to time?

Nanaej

But when we've practised for a while, how vastly we improve our style!

Jess Lots of us may break the speed limit from time to time
It's sometimes easily done -there is a particularly pernicious stretch of road in Woolsington in Newcastle where the limit ranges between 30,40 and 70 several times over about a mile - but that doesn't mean we would also pervert the course of justice by lying about who was in the driving seat.......

No, I'm just pointing out that it is a potentially serious offence in itself, repeated speeding and the PTCOJ thing is not inconsequential.

I was misunderstood when I described the transfer of speeding points as a relatively trivial offence. I did not mean the offence itself was trivial but that it was trivial compared with the offence that the Huhnes were actually charged with, that of 'perverting the course of justice'.

Like it or not this crime, because it undermines the whole rule of law that governs and protects every citizen is treated as a very serious crime indeed and compared with the underlying crimes that normally lead to charges of PTCOJ, such as providing a false alibi for a murderer or rapist so that they can avoid arrest or doing anything that enables a serial abuser, physical or sexual from being identified and prosecuted, for example, speeding on an empty motorway late at night is not a serious offence.

I have no sympathy for either of them. She must have known about the previous points he had accumulated on his licence and therefore known that by taking these points she was condoning his behaviour and possibly encouraging him to continue to speed. As a mother I would have expected her to be more concerned about the damage he might do while speeding.

I do think it would be a waste of our money to imprison them and think we should be able to come up with a punishment which would hurt them more than prison. After all they are not being locked up for our safety. I would take away both their driving licences for 2 years and give them a very dirty and painful community service job for the maximum number of hours the law allows as well as a huge fine. Of course none of this may be possible within the current legal system.

It seems a pity that people who have money, perhaps over a certain level, can't be charged for their 'board and lodging' whilst in prison.

Janea that particular stretch of road probably finances Northumbria police it is notorious. There is also a stretch of road towards Edinburgh which supports the police with its discreet change of speed.