Huhne

[kernelbogey]

[...] With regard to revenge, there's always the apocryphal story of the Jaguar being sold for a tenner, but the story involving "ex away, still had a key to the flat, shag pile carpet, scattered mustard and cress seeds, plenty of water, turned up the central heating" has a certain devilish twist to it.

But my favourite is the injured party woman secreting prawns in the hollow curtain rails in her ex's post-split flat. She learned of his frantic efforts to locate the origin of the ghastly smell, calling in all kinds of environmental consultants. As he finally, in desperation, moved out, she observed with pleasure from her car parked opposite as the removal men put the offending poles in the van to go to his new flat.

[Nick Armstrong]

But my favourite is the injured party woman secreting prawns in the hollow curtain rails in her ex's post-split flat. She learned of his frantic efforts to locate the origin of the ghastly smell, calling in all kinds of environmental consultants. As he finally, in desperation, moved out, she observed with pleasure from her car parked opposite as the removal men put the offending poles in the van to go to his new flat.

Brilliant!! :devil:

[Barbirollians]

I fear she was ill-advised in not pleading guilty at the very first opportunity .I think he is quite lucky I would have expected him to get 12 months .Had she pleaded at the start and used the " coercion " as mitigation rather than a defence I suspect she might have escaped with a suspended sentence or a community penalty.

[eighthobstruction]

It's soooooooooo perverted....

[LeMartinPecheur]

:ok:

I take AH's point about ...

Highly inappropriate phrase in this context surely Floss??:laugh:

[Pabmusic]

You get a third off for good behaviour so they'll serve just over 5 months - that's not a lot...

Because they are serving sentences of less than 12 months, they will be released at the halfway point. The calculation will be the number of days from 11 March to 10 October (inclusive) divided by two, which will be about four months. (I think it's 214 days, divided by 2, giving 107 days to serve, taking them to release on 25 June - but it's years since I had to check sentence calculations, and I'm very rusty).

[Flosshilde]

Importantly the repetition of the offences shows the contempt he has for that system, and once you've understood that, the rest follows in some ghastly logic of its own.

Which is why the sentence is so derisory.

Actually, the attention has all been on the points-swap; was he done for speeding at the time? Well, presumably not as she claimed to be driving, so was she done for speeding, & if so will Huhne now be charged?

[Flosshilde]

Highly inappropriate phrase in this context surely Floss??:laugh:

Oops

:ok:

[scottycelt]

Because they are serving sentences of less than 12 months, they will be released at the halfway point. The calculation will be the number of days from 11 March to 10 October (inclusive) divided by two, which will be about four months. (I think it's 214 days, divided by 2, giving 107 days to serve, taking them to release on 25 June - but it's years since I had to check sentence calculations, and I'm very rusty).

The BBC reporter yesterday confirmed what you say, with rather less detail, Pab!

Apparently the two convicts are likely to spend half the sentence imposed and only about 4-6 weeks of that in a 'closed' prison and they will then be transferred to an 'open' one.

I don't think these sentences are at all harsh considering the attempted 'perversion of justice', the high status of the offenders, and the stated comments in court about "sending a message' to others who might be considering behaving in a similar manner.

I can remember an ex-colleague, 22 years old, who was sentenced to 9 months jail for thieving £11,000 from his employer. It was a first offence and he immediately confessed when the theft was discovered and pled guilty. 'Perverting the course of justice' might appear to an armchair amateur like myself to be an even more serious offence in the eyes of the law.

As I type, Evan Davies of the BBC is now twittering on about the possibility of the equal sentence handed out to Pryce as being 'misogynistic'. :laugh:

[Pabmusic]

...I don't think these sentences are at all harsh considering the attempted 'perversion of justice', the high status of the offenders, and the stated comments in court about "sending a message' to others who might be considering behaving in a similar manner...As I type, Evan Davies of the BBC is now twittering on about the possibility of the equal sentence handed out to Pryce as being 'misogynistic'. :laugh:

I'd have not been surprised by anything up to 12 months, though anything over that would surely have been harsh.

As to Pryce's sentence, she didn't benefit from the one month 'discount' that Huhne got for pleading guilty, so they didn't exactly get 'equal sentences' - Huhne would have got nine months if he'd fought it; Pryce would presumably have got less if she'd put her hands up.

[scottycelt]

I meant to add that the "discount" for Huhne's guilty plea was 10% not the apparently normal one third reduction.

It doesn't take an arithmetical genius to work out what that will mean to Huhne in practice if he serves only half his sentence as expected, the reduction will be 2 weeks or under.

Hardly a big deal in the scheme of things, though from Huhne's point of view every little bit of extra freedom will count.

Just noticed your last post, Pab, so my point regarding the size of the reduction has already been made

[ahinton]

Highly inappropriate phrase in this context surely Floss??:laugh:

Point taken (sorry!), but it's not as inappropriate as you seem to suggest; after all, theft of points is one thing but mutually agreed exchange thereof is quite another matter, surely?...

[Karafan]

I wonder if I was entirely alone in raising a quizzical (albeit perfectly-shaped) eyebrow this morning, over my steaming bowl of porridge, when listening to the Today Programme?

Evan Davis was in conversation with Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and someone else, regarding the Huhne/Pryce proceedings. YA-B was acknowledged as a friend of Pryce's and Evan added words to the effect of "as am I". I thought it rather odd then that Evan, for whom I have a lot of time, would conduct the interview about whether the sentences were felt to be harsh/excessive etc. I detected a slight concurrence with YA-B when she suggested the sentences were too punitive and I wondered why this interview hadn't been taken by John Humphries, given a slight conflict of interests here?

Evan later elaborated that VP had been a studio guest on occasion, commenting on the state of the Greek economy etc., but that scarcely nominates her for "friendship" status, surely? So I am forced to assume the friendship is of a personal nature, rather than purely professional acquaintanceship.

Did anyone else find this odd?

Karafan

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder if I was entirely alone in raising a quizzical (albeit perfectly-shaped) eyebrow this morning, over my steaming bowl of porridge, when listening to the Today Programme?

Evan Davis was in conversation with Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and someone else, regarding the Huhne/Pryce proceedings. YA-B was acknowledged as a friend of Pryce's and Evan added words to the effect of "as am I". I thought it rather odd then that Evan, for whom I have a lot of time, would conduct the interview about whether the sentences were felt to be harsh/excessive etc. I detected a slight concurrence with YA-B when she suggested the sentences were too punitive and I wondered why this interview hadn't been taken by John Humphries, given a slight conflict of interests here?

Evan later elaborated that VP had been a studio guest on occasion, commenting on the state of the Greek economy etc., but that scarcely nominates her for "friendship" status, surely? So I am forced to assume the friendship is of a personal nature, rather than purely professional acquaintanceship.

Did anyone else find this odd?

Karafan

Not odd at all to me, frankly. It has come to a pretty pass when one holds one's breath in forlorn hope of some level of non-fawning engagement with interviewees for Mr Humphrys to take over; "Toady" is now so well misnamed.

[french frank]

Not sure why 'a friend of Pryce's ' was invited to comment in the first place on a subject for which she seems otherwise unqualified.

The original offence (the speeding) was a bit footling, but I can't see how that need affect the gravity of the subsequent offence for which they were actually being tried.