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Chris Huhne to stand trial over speeding points on Monday
Chris Huhne will stand trial on Monday next week over a claim that he forced his ex-wife to take his speeding points.
By Sam Marsden12:48PM GMT 28 Jan 2013

The Liberal Democrat former Cabinet Minister formally entered a plea of not guilty today to the charge of perverting the course of justice.
Mr Huhne, 58, resigned as Energy Secretary last year after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that he had been charged over an allegation that he persuaded his former wife, Vicky Pryce, to take his penalty points for a speeding offence almost a decade ago.

Wearing a charcoal grey suit with a white shirt and a green-and-blue striped tie, Mr Huhne said "not guilty" in a strong and clear voice when he was asked to enter a plea at London's Southwark Crown Court today.
The events which led to the charges date back to March 2003, when Mr Huhne's car was allegedly caught by a speed camera on the motorway between Stansted Airport in Essex and London.

Allegations of wrong-doing were not made public until 2011, after the politician admitted an affair with Carina Trimingham, his press agent, and ended his 26-year marriage.
Following an eight-month police investigation, Mr Huhne and Miss Pryce, a prominent economist, were charged in February last year with perverting the course of justice, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Mr Huhne, 58, of Eastleigh, Hampshire, has stayed on as the Lib-Dem MP for Eastleigh after standing down from the Cabinet to fight the charge.
He and his ex-wife are accused of falsely informing the police between March 12 2003 and May 21 2003 that Miss Pryce was the driver of the car, thereby accepting responsibility for the offence so Mr Huhne could avoid prosecution.
Miss Pryce, 60, of Clapham, south London, also denies the charge and will stand trial alongside her former husband next week.

In my opinion, Chris Huhne is an arrogant p**t. He is the MP for Eastleigh (just near me) and the local Liberal Dem publicity machine seems to have expunged him from all their communications. I wasn't aware of the injunction preventing dicussion of him in the media.

I am very impressed with the "spousal coercion" angle as this really points at his guilt. Logically, if Huhne is not guilty, then his wife must also be not guilty. If he is guilty then his wife could get off via this route. Clever.

One interesting feature of the reporting of this case is the near universal opinion that the original offence of speeding was "trivial".

I thought the official position was that speeding was akin to GBH on children. Maybe the farce of automated enforcement has now been revealed to many.