A rare thing happened earlier – Chris Huhne popped up for live interviews about his brief on both Sky and the BBC. Given that he has spent the last four months hiding from cameras, desperate not to be drawn in on questions regarding his cowardice and lies, he must be feeling rather lucky. The police thought he would be charged weeks ago and the CPS are certainly dragging their feet. He’s also given an interview to Prospect. Amongst the usual moans about losing the AV vote, Huhne seems to twist the knife on Clegg some what. He thinks Clegg would be “a tremendous” EU trade commissioner – the definition of damning with faint praise. He was quick to qualify his words though:

“It seems completely ridiculous to think of anything other than Nick continuing as leader of the party. He’s a lot younger than me, more than ten years younger than me for Christ’s sake, and I think that Nick will see out my time in politics.”

Unless the CPS chicken out, Nick isn’t going to have to wait much longer…

Des Pardes, the UK’s most popular Punjabi newspaper are sticking it to Ealing MP Virendra Sharma and his dodgy £5,000 donation from the Indian government. As Guido reported yesterday, the Electoral Commission are on the case. Funnily enough Sharma isn’t willing to talk to Guido on the phone. Something to hide perhaps?

The Guardian are reporting that Johann Hari is expected to be treated leniently by the investigation into his intellectual fraud led by former Indy editor Andreas Whittam Smith. Guido doesn’t think this will go down very well, but what do you reckon?

Hari is almost certain to lose the Orwell Prize, leaving the Indy on very thin ice…

The Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle diary had an interesting snippet about Huhne this morning. It appears his defence lines are already being acid-tested. A source said:

“It’s very rare for a minister, while in office, to be charged with a crime. It’s also a very unusual case in that the man accused – and the wife accusing him – might both be prosecuted.”

It’s rare for a man purported to be of noble standing to hide behind his family in such a way, so Guido is unsure of the point there…

However it was the final line that really caught his attention:

“Huhne’s lawyers could argue there was an abuse of process in the way the case was brought to court.”

Er, how exactly? The CPS are being meticulous before they pull the trigger – going backwards and forwards to Essex Police. If they charge him it will all be by the book…

UPDATE: He’s got some cheek too:

As Cameron mocked Ed Mili over "getting his collar felt over policing", Chris Huhne was getting v animated, pointing at Labour front bench.—
Tim Gatt (@TimGatt) September 07, 2011

No wonder it took so long for the CPS to put this together – they are throwing the whole book at her. Perhaps now they will have more time now to focus on other politically sensitive cases…

Having conned the taxpayer out of £98,000 the former Labour MP Margaret Moran will finally be charged by the CPS today. The other Labour MPs to face criminal charges have been tried and served, some of, their sentences in the time it has taken to show that Moran had three-second homes in four months and the dry rot she got fixed for £20,000 was at neither her constituency or second home.

The Telegraph weirdly refers to Moran as the last MP under investigation. Now that’s just not true, is it Mr MacShane?

When even Nick Clegg is calling for you to be locked up, you know you are in trouble. The Deputy Prime Minister told Scottish radio yesterday:

“My personal view is that I would like to see al Megrahi behind bars, because whatever you think, he was convicted in a court of law for one of the most atrocious terrorist acts this country has ever seen…”

Apparently it’s a decision for the Scottish executive alone though. Just like the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber…

After the humiliation of their flag being waved in Gaddafi’s compound upon Megrahi’s return, the Scots have a chance to do the right thing. Leaving aside whether appearing at a murdering dictator’s last stand constitutes good behaviour, part of the release conditions state that Megrahi must be in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council. But he’s gone AWOL:

#Megrahi's phone is ringing but there's no answer. The plot thickens—
James Matthews (@SkyScot) August 25, 2011

Find him and cuff him. For a full independent medical at the very least…

Guido spotted David Laws sauntering through China Town laden with two bags of books from Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross this afternoon. Heavy reading for his summer holidays perhaps. Laws is the only person in Westminster with more money than Guido riding on Chris Huhne being charged for perverting the course of justice as a result of transferring speeding penalty points to his wife. One-in, one-out is the coalition’s rule.

If Huhne goes, the expense fiddling Laws is favourite to come back into government. His mummy made him do it – fiddle his expenses that is – in the sense that he expects us to believe he only fiddled his expenses because he didn’t want his mother to find out he had a boyfriend. We’re all expected to forget about the matter of the supposed gift of £99,000 to his boyfriend, which a cynic might think was gifted in order to facilitate the boyfriend buying a property which Laws could pretend to part-rent from a landlord-owned property in which he had no interest. The £99,000 was a gift you see, not a loan towards the deposit on the property. If it was a loan Laws would have been guilty of a conspiracy to defraud the taxpayer. It was a gift, which is very different.

Completely plausible is it not? How could anyone doubt the truth? Give a gift to a lover equivalent two two years after-tax salary, then pretend that the landlord we have given the gift to isn’t your lover only so as not to embarrass mum. Then claim rent to pay the landlord/lover on expenses. The £99,000 gift not giving one an interest in the property one is renting.

His return to government will make a welcome change to having that liar Chris Huhne in the Cabinet won’t it?

Given that he’s on very thin ice at the moment, with the CPS holding his career and freedom in their hands, is it not a little presumptuous for the ever brazen Chris Huhne to be announcing speaking gigs months in advance? Keen greens can book now for October’s Renewable UK 2011 with a keynote from the Secretary of State for Climate Change…

Whether or not that will still be Huhne by then remains to be seen…