In a rare media appearance, Chris Huhne popped up on the Today program this morning. “I am saying there is no truth in those allegations” he claimed. An odd choice of words when he reportedly told the police “no comment”. We all know what you are saying Chris, we just don’t believe you. Apparently “incompetence is not necessarily a matter for resignation…” 

Forcing your wife to break the law, and instigating a cover up, is though.

Jim Devine has ranted against Guido in a letter to the prisoners’ rag Converse. He claims that because of the internet he did not get  a fail trial as his reputation was “trashed”. Only one person trashed Jim Devine’s reputation and that was Jim Devine, not least with his car-crash TV confession.

Forging VAT numbers and invoices didn’t help either.

“Along with my parliamentary colleagues my public and private reputation was trashed on the internet… I know several senior MPs that are very concerned about the ability of an individual to receive a fair trial in the internet age.”

Devine also claimed that several senior MPs told him it was fine to fiddle his expenses. Something the judge branded him a liar for. Guido is proud of the role we played in bringing Devine to justice. This unedifying moaning only serves to trash his name further.

Roy Greenslade reveals in his Standard column today that the Sunday Times’ lawyers have declared that there are no legal grounds for appealing the court order demanding that they hand over of their Pryce/Huhne tape and documentation to Essex Police. The hour is getting late Chris. Time to reach for your simple sword of truth and that trusty shield of British fair play.

Given Vicky Pryce is demanding that the BBC did not mention the allegations she made against her estranged husband as a condition of her touring the TV studios to talk about Greece, full points to Krishnan Guru Murphy for sticking the boot in:

Wonder if she smirked like that in front of the police? She might as well have winked to the camera…

UPDATE: Krishnan also asked “The Donald” if he was wearing his own hair. He explains himself here, must be something in the water on Grays Inn Road…

Video via Liar Politicians.

PA is suggesting that Essex Police had a face to face meeting on Friday with the CPS to discuss Chris Huhne’s speeding points. The inquiry is on going, but the police must be confident enough that they have a case if they are actively seeking face time the prosecutors…

Huhne was out of the country last week, he might wish he’d stayed there…

Former Democratic Vice-President nominee, and utter sleaze-ball, John Edwards has been formally charged with six counts over the cover-up he instigated about his affair with a campaign staffer. While his wife was dying of cancer, Edwards used funds raised for his abortive bid against Obama and Hillary in 2007/08 to silence his lover. Guess which British wannabe party leader made payments to his mistress and former campaign staffer…

Lord Taylor would not be going to prison for a year without a combination of bloggers and Jonathan Calvert of the Sunday Times. Taylor, a former barrister, dishonestly claimed £11,277. For background on the case see Pesky Bloggers Do It Again (Nov, 2009). Amusingly he claimed to a co-conspirator on the Lords of the Blog not long before being charged that:

“For your information, the police have examined my expenses. The police are satisfied that there has been no impropriety or any other cause for concern. They have thanked me for my cooperation, and will not be taking the matter further.”

Alas that turned out to be untrue when it was challenged by a co-conspirator, that very claim on his blog set in course a chain of events that led to him going down today. He would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky bloggers…

The seventy-year-old Tory peer racked up £14,000 of fake accommodation charges between March 2006 and May 2009. He wasn’t staying in town, but being chauffeured back to Essex instead. His claims that “they were all at it”, however true, did little to help his case. The prosecution closing statement was damning:

“There was no real honesty in making claims that way, because of four reasons – the written rules, the golden rule of ‘don’t make a claim for more than you spend’, there’s nothing to suggest this was the practice, and his behaviour. The way he filled out the forms does not suggest he really believed the rules allowed him to make false claims. It was a deliberate and dishonest decision on his part to fill in the forms in that way.”

He will be sentenced in three weeks time…

Hot on the revelation that Vicky Pryce has signed an affidavit confessing to have taken Chris Huhne’s points hacks may want to ask her a few follow-up questions. If so they should hurry on down to Stationer’s Hall in the City where she is on a panel at an economics conference  at 11.15. Chris Huhne is not answering questions – except to the police, even then he can’t remember the answer…

Last week Huhne said to Laura Kuenssberg that the allegations against him “were incorrect”, had been “made before and shown to be untrue”, and that’s all he would like to say on the matter. Yesterday, he was cornered by Channel4 News, and despite being presented with new evidence, he gave the identical statement:

The police are going to want a little bit more detail than that Chris. And Guido doesn’t recommend you laugh in that interview…