VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|HarryR|DATE|1360162484|CONTENT|Chris Huhne got caught speeding, again, which meant that the expected 3 point penalty would push him over the limit and lead to loss of his license for a year or so. 

Like many he considered the use of his car as essential to his role as MP and high flyer in the LibDem party and contender for the leadership and there being no workable alternative that wouldn&#039;t cause disruption to the many professional relationships he had across the country. 

Given the process of noting his speed, recognising his car and posting him the standard fine was all automatic, I doubt very much if the Huhnes are the only couple who have thought of pooling penalty points to keep one of them on the road.

Does this act of dishonesty disqualify him from public office? We all speed or otherwise break the traffic laws, yet all agree that speed limits and the other laws are required to keep the roads safe, and all complain when we are caught out.

Is it fair to judge politicians differently from how we would have acted in the same situation? Winston Churchill was a British Imperialist in the Victorian vein, and recommended bombing with poisonous gas as a solution to rebellious tribesmen in the north of Iraq in the 1920s. Yet his reputation seems robust enough for now.

The starkest impression from the Huhne saga is the way two people once friends, then close friends, then a high flying mutually supportive professional couple can fall out so comprehensively after many successful years of family life together, and how the respect, affection and love be replaced by rage. 

Having fallen out with or lost to illness or accident close friends and girlfriends over the years, it&#039;s with sadness to be reminded how people can tear each other apart, as if something bad happening should outweigh all the good that ever happened.|IP-ADDRESS|92.40.254.158|MODERATIONFLAG|