Is Chris Huhne speeding to disaster?

Chris Huhne in Chicken Run riddle

Chris Huhne is an ambitious man. He has put his ambition to good use. He set up his own business, he succesfully launched a political career, has become a cabinet minister and would like to be leader of his party and who knows what else. I detect he is a clever man, but not necessarily a nice man. I've never met him but that's the impression I get. I've met nice politicians, affable ones, self-opinionated ones and quite nasty ones. Thankfully the latter is a tiny minority. All politicians, if they are successful in getting high up the ladder, have to endure being talked about. Mostly it is by the public and the political chattering classes. They can handle that. But a wife who feels wronged and betrayed? That's potential dynamite.

Entering the fray is his estranged wife Vicki Pryce, herself a political animal. She claims that her husband asked her take his penalty points for a 2003 speeding offence. He strenuously denies it. As with all such tiffs, one of them is wrong. She's miffed about his adultery. Quite understandable. But would she say things to hurt him like this? He's said some trenchant things about the Tories of late? But would they say things to hurt him like this? It all becomes quite mystifying.

I know the asking of someone else to take penalty points is not unusual. Some even talk openly about it. Usually it's the willing wife, but sometimes it's the put upon parent, child or business partner. It's illegal, of course, but quite a few drivers have a tendency to think they are above the law, or the motoring laws in particular.

If Mrs Huhne did do this for her husband, then it is tantamount to her being a perjurer. If Mr. Huhne did it he is in the firing line for a charge of perverting the course of justice. High stakes for both of them. Bit like poker in Las Vegas. Mr Huhne's future could hang on whether Essex Police, who have assigned a senior detective to look into the allegations, decide to launch a full criminal investigation. Will they or won't they? I'd say they will, because not to might look like they were covering up. Anyway, it can't be that difficult to find out what went on. Dates, drivers and penalty points can easily be matched up.

The name Huhne is German in origin and means "live chicken" as opposed to a cooked one. Could be Chris Huhne will find out soon enough if his chickens are coming home to roost or he has cooked them good and proper! And there was I thinking the Coalition wouldn't have any skeletons in the cupboard!

As the woman vicar said to the bishop!

For those who say the Church should get modern I suppose adultery and infidelity are not what they are thinking of. The real world has both in spadefuls it seems. It is therefore very sad when such things encroach on the lives of Church members and clergy. Not that those of us in the Church are less capable of falling short. Far from it.

In the Church in Wales, the Right Rev. Carl Cooper resigned as Bishop of St David's yesterday. He had apparently been having an affair with a married woman who was also the bishop's chaplain and communications officer. The Daily Mail erroneously described her as a vicar, but then all priests in the Anglican Church are vicars to the popular press, even if they are curates, chaplains, rectors, assistant priests or priests-in-charge.

This is a sad state of affairs, literally. What I find difficult is that both sides seem more attuned with the ways of the world rather than trying to reconcile their actions with their faith. With the modern approach to a more laissez faire version of Anglicanism, the "moving out" and "splitting up" comes before trying to maintain marriage vows.

The New Testament (1 Timothy 3:2, 12) says, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. . . ." Not all live up to that and one should never judge, but giving in quite so easily seems to me to suggest a lack of willingness to try again.

Putin puts in a put down on divorce talk

Quite rightly Vladimir Putin has dismissed rumours that he is going to divorce his wife in order to take up with a 24-year-old former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, who is now a member of parliament. On a visit to see the newly re-elected prime minister of Italy, one Silvio (I've got a good election strategy) Berlusconi, Putin said, "I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives." Well said, sir!

If Mr.Putin thinks Ms Kabeyeva is a cracker, it doesn't automatically make him an adulterer. I know Jimmy Carter once said he committed adultery in his heart. He said, "I try not to commit a deliberate sin. I recognize that I'm going to do it anyhow, because I'm human and I'm tempted. And Christ set some almost impossible standards for us. Christ said, 'I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do--and I have done it--and God forgives me for it." And which man in the world - heterosexual, that is - hasn't looked at a woman fondly? Certainly the tongue-wagging journalists and snotty-nosed critics have, without a doubt.

Putin says there is "not a single word of truth" in any of it. What is true is that tabloid journalists do have erotic fantasies and they do prowl into others' lives. Putin is dead right there.