Is Patrick Mercer the new Chris Huhne?

There are some striking similarities between Patrick Mercer's resignation statement this evening and the statement put out by Chris Huhne when he resigned from the Cabinet.

Huhne:

"This letter is to submit with much regret my resignation as Energy and Climate Change Secretary. I intend to mount a robust defence against the charges brought against me, and I have concluded that it would be distracting both to that effort and to my official duties if I were to continue in office."

Mercer:

"I am taking legal advice about these allegations - and I have referred myself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. In the meantime, to save my party embarrassment, I have resigned the Conservative Whip and have so informed Sir George Young."

 

Chris Huhne - choice of Polly Toynbee

A little publicised fact in the downfall of Chris Huhne.  In the 2007 Lib Dem leadership vote - he was the preferred candidate Polly Toynbee (apparently also a guest at his champagne parties).  In a gloriously patronising and ill-informed piece on the election, Toynbee wrote:

"Huhne is most likely to seize the political opportunity on Brown's exposed left flank. Above all, he is toughest on proportional representation, the party's one historic purpose - to reform British politics."

So farewell then Chris Huhne...

The inevitable consequnce of his guilty plea.  Huhne to quit as MP.  One assumes the by-election will be on local election day in May.

Congratulations Edward Davey

The self destruction of Chris Huhne has not been edifying. But the appointment of Ed Davey as his replacement is unalloyed good news for the Lib Dems.

Ed is a formidable campaigner - fighting the 'unwinnable' Kingston and Surbiton seat in 1997 - with no central help and a 15,000 Tory majority. The selection for the Tory nomination (between Richard Tracey and Norman Lamont) was seen by the media as the decisive contest. In the end Ed won by just 56 votes, but carried on campaigning so just four years later romped home with a majority of more than 15,000.

He has been regarded as one of the most able ministers - piloting through a deal that has delivered a long term future for post offices and ending once and for all the post office closure programmes of the last two governments. He has also equalised parental leave so that new parents can choose how to take their statutory time off between them.

In February 1997 - he was tipped by the Independent as a future cabinet minister in 2020 - saying:

...Davey became politically active as a student "discussing the minutiae of energy conservation and green economics" and conservationism is his big issue. He believes citizens should be viewed as "custodians of the environment and not just consumers".

He has made it with eight years to spare to a post he is eminently qualified for.

Solar subsidy ruling rap for Huhne

The DECC should have known better when it announced a halving of the subsidy for domestic solar panels, while still consulting on the change.

It's a pretty basic rule of public consultation (as well as common sense), not to pre-empt its the outcome by implementing a decision while still asking for the public's views. The Judicial Review could only have one possible outcome as a result of the actions of the department.

In a way this result is reflective of the way Chris Huhne operates - take the big decisions, drive through a clear media line - even if it means hectoring your opponents, stay on message until people get bored. But Chris has a vein of arrogance and hubris running through him and someone with a subtler attitude and more finely tuned ear would have clearly seen the foolishnes of going ahead with the change to the subsidy so quickly.

The incredible shrinking credibility of Guido Fawkes

Chris Huhne is in trouble. There is an ongoing police investigation into allegations over his speeding penalties and whether someone else took the rap for them which will end his political career if proved accurate.

So why then is right wing smearmeister Paul Staines (AKA the self importantly monikered Guido Fawkes) trying desperately to pin allegations of election expenses misdeeds as well?

As Mark Pack has pointed out the lack of evidence for these bizarre allegations is now reaching the stage of hilarity as Staines and his sidekick, Harry Cole, continue to clutch at the smallest of straws of evidence - with ludicrous assertions that a council meeting about a cycle path represented some sort of crisis summit for Huhne.

Staines made his reputation as one of the earliest political bloggers - a sort of on-line Private Eye - exposing politicians who were on the take regardless of their politics - but soon descended into the right wing spleen venting and conspiracy theory promoting beloved of right wing US talk radio. His assertions that his blog is somehow apolitical and only concerned with corruption and the misdeeds of the rich and powerful of all political persuasions is given the lie by the labels he gives to the articles he publishes. By his own categorisation of articles he has 32 Labour politicians, six Liberal Democrats and just 12 Tories (which includes a gushing article - also in the 'tottywatch' category - about SamCam and various paeans to 'Maggie').

It's clear he's now just another right wing cheerleader. His conceit is to pretend he is somehow important or influential - when in reality he's just another muckraker.

Here's when it all became apparent. It's just a surprise he's been able to get away with it for so long.

Chris Huhne - the new Gerald Nabarro?

With the Tory press doing their best to try and pin a driving offence identity swap on Lib Dem Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, one can't help be reminded of a previous case involving an MP.

In this case the MP was outspoken Tory right winger (and Lord Bonkers lookalike) Gerald Nabarro. In 1971 a Daimler bearing the registration number 'NAB 1' was seen to be driving dangerously on the wrong side of the road in Totton Hampshire. An eye witness claimed a moustachioed man was behind the wheel and Nabarro was fined and banned, despite claiming his secretary was driving.

He appealed and new witnesses came forward to corroborate his story, but unfortunately he suffered two strokes and died shortly after. The Daily Echo has a good account of the story here.

In another twist his parliamentary secretary at the time was Christine Holman - better known now as Christine Hamilton.

I doubt whatever the outcome of the Huhne case - and it looks more and more like simply the fallout from his messy divorce - it is as unlikely to be anything like as colourful as the protagonists in the Nabarro case.