General Chat

I'm sure I saw him in the dole queue last week.

Myself I thought the sentence for perjury by a minister of the crown unbelievably short. A minimum of five years hard before parole would have been more like it "pour encourager les autres". fwiw Chris Huhne is a real pain in the wotsit. Avoid.

I suppose the light sentencing and rapid return to employment of both of them is a good measure of what passes for honesty in British public life.

I really hope that the details of blagging, data theft, hacking and so on by the great and good, leading law firms and blue chip companies is published. It will only happen if somebody has the courage to publish and be damned. Unlikely

I know some of the law firms and not wishing to be flattened under the weight of 1 million lawyers say nowt.

ONE MILLION LAWYERS
By Tom Paxton

Humankind has survived some disasters, I'm sure.
Like locusts and flash floods and flu.
There's never a moment when we've been secure
From the ills that the flesh is heir to.
If it isn't a war, it's some gruesome disease.
If it isn't disease, then it's war.
But there's worse still to come, and I'm asking you please
How the world's gonna take any more?

(CHORUS:)
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers,
One million lawyers, one million lawyers.
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers.
How much can a poor nation stand?

The world shook with dread of Atilla the Hun
As he conquered with fire and steel,
And Genghis and Kubla and all of the Kahns
Ground a groaning world under the heel.
Disaster, disaster, so what else is new?
We've suffered the worst and then some.
So I'm sorry to tell you, my suffering friends,
Of the terrible scourge still to come.
(CHORUS)
Oh, a suffering world cries for mercy
As far as the eye can see.
Lawyers around every bend in the road,
Laywers in every tree,
Lawyers in restaurants, lawyers in clubs,
Lawyers behind every door,
Behind windows and potted plants, shade trees and shrubs,
Lawyers on pogo sticks, lawyers in politics!
(CHORUS)
In spring there's tornadoes and rampaging floods,
In summer it's heat stroke and draught.
There's Ivy League football to ruin the fall,
It's a terrible scourge, without doubt.
There are blizzards to batter the shivering plain.
There are dust storms that strike, but far worse
Is the threat of disaster to shrivel the brain,
It's the threat of implacable curse.
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers,
One million lawyers, one million lawyers.
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers.
How much can a poor nation stand?
How much can a poor nation stand

I couldn't have made it any clearer that I thought the answer to your long and convoluted Opening Post was "yes", OFITG. People can say 5 years minimum, never in any industry where they could lobby with inside knowledge etc.

To my mind, the rules are vastly more stringent than when Kenneth Clarke and others like senior civil servants were getting Board Room appointments years ago, and if someone passes these rules - leave them alone or complain to Lord Lang.

As soon as I saw your Opening Post, I knew it was a ....... So I will leave you to your pontification with those who agree with your views. (Edit - I mean your view that 2 years should be extended to 5 years after leaving Government office, Civil Service, or whatever else comes under Lord Lang's scrutiny)

John - The title of the thread could not be any clearer what the thread is about and my post addressed to you at 10 Aug 2013 @ 10:56 clarified what the thread was about.

So stop twisting things :-| I should have known the moment I saw your name come up on this thread that you would hijack it and distort it so that it does not relate in any shape, form, or kind, to the question asked in the title of the thread.

For Your Information the EXIT is this way ------>

Posts crossed. So OFITG is not concerned about Huhne per se. He is questioning the rules, and suggesting they are not robust enough.

Have just had a look at rules, which were last revised in February 2011.

"All Crown servants are subject to the Business Appointments Rules. The independent Committee advises on applications at the most senior levels. Other levels are dealt with by the relevant department. The Committee also advises on applications made by former Ministers and special advisers (at all levels).

In advising on an application, the Committee must consider the public interest in light of the Government’s Rules and the law on restraint of trade. The Committee may advise on a range of specific conditions to be applied in relation to any appointment.

The Rules apply to all appointments within two years of leaving office or Crown service. Once an individual notifies the Committee that he or she has taken up an appointment, the Committee will make public the advice and any conditions imposed by publishing details here."

Written by Ian Lang (Lord Lang of Monkton), the Chairman of the Advisory Commission on Business Appointments. If I remember, he was/is a Tory whereas Huhne is fairly pink and progressive in his political views. So I expect his proposed appointment got reviewed pretty fully.

Can I just remind you that my post in response to Opening Post was to quote answer to OFITG's question:

"The Advisory Commission on Business Appointments, which advises the Prime Minister on new jobs for former ministers, have given him the green light to accept the position."

I have never thought much of him, so am surprised I appear to be the only one who does not mind him taking appointments. I felt this was a very poor discussion topic.

Rules are rules. He has broken a law and been punished for it. Not a serious crime. 1. He would have been fined £30 in those days, 3 points and forfeited his license. He was clearly communicating with ex-wife Vicky in 2003 (I think speeding was about 10 years ago) and they both decided to lie to protect his career. Many (including politicians) have lied over speeding points - not least the police.
2. He has lied about it, been found out and punished. Someone wants to give him a job as he has brains and experience in their line of work and still has some respect in Parliament and beyond.

Am I the only one who believes that the rules on appointments are reasonable and quite stringent? Are you complaining about Huhne as a fellow member of human race, or are you complaining about the Parliamentary rules on appointments - not clear what everyone's beef is. :-( :-( :-S

Agree OFiTG - If firms foolishly want to employ them in a job where there had been political interest, there should be at least a 5 year gap.

John we are not talking about any other politicians or celebrities or what camara was used that caught Chris Huhne for speeding. What he did was wrong end of.

What this thread is about is the new Job Mr Huhne been given now. one that should have gone to someone with honesty, trust amung other things in a CV

John this thread is not intended to be a discussion about Chris Hume or his wife, I merely cited his appointment as an example of a government minister taking employment in a sector he had responsibility for, it is about Government Minsters, Senior Armed Forces Officers, and Senior Civil Servants - taking positions in the private sector with companies in areas/markets they had responsibility for in the public sector.

There are other leading politicians who have lied (allegedly) about much more serious matters and have not even been brought to trial yet :-S :-S

Many businesses will want to employ Huhne (and his ex-wife for that matter). At least those employers will know what they have been up to, and that they have paid their penalty to society.

If enough people share holders, customers & public felt strongly enough about this & did some homework, the Advisory Commission on Business Appointments can reverse what they said if a good enough reason was given to them. It was wrong for them to do this in the first place in my view. Chris Huhne has shown to the world he is not to be trusted & to give him a job such as this is just madness. Who is going to end up paying for it all? yep Jo public, that's you & me by the way.

I don't know how an employer could trust someone who was in prison for what the Huhnes tried to get off with.

I copy and paste from a recent article by a journalist called Rory Sutherland:

"No newspaper has yet pointed out that the speed camera which caught Chris Huhne was not just any old speed camera. From what I have found online it seems to have been the long-notorious ‘Site 050’ camera at the M11 at Chigwell, just beyond the point where the speed limit on the motorway drops from 70mph to 50.

The camera was installed in 2000. In 2003, the year of Huhne’s offence, it generated more revenue than any other speed camera in the country. Along with the MEP, it caught 9,638 other drivers that year, netting over £500,000 in fines. Despite this, figures showed that accidents at the spot have risen since its introduction."

A lot of people (me included) hated speed cameras for the very reason they were increasing deaths and injuries. Department of Transport were falsifying statistics to make their case for retention. So I have some sympathy for Huhne's plight. Many celebrities were paying a fortune to get off speeding fines a decade ago, some ordinary people were setting fire to so-called "safety cameras".

Once his wife of 28 years had agreed to take points, neither of them could have backed down and admitted the deceit without it affecting his career - and remember he narrowly lost to Sir Menzies Campbell to become Lib Dem leader after Kennedy became ill.

Putting aside the events leading up to his conviction, and what in my opinion was a lenient sentence, he was the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and I do not think that it would be have been unreasonable for a minimum period of five years to have passed from the time he left office before he was allowed to take up a position with an company in the sector that he was responsible for while in office.

That five year minimum should apply to all Government Minsters, senior Armed Forces Officers, and Senior Civil Servants.

It was a terrible crime that wrecked his political career (not). Asking his ex-wife to take his speeding points.

That crime would not have even been a crime a few years ago. A friendly (sometimes) policemen would have called you over and given you a telling off. If he or she decided to prosecute you, I guess there would have been no need to try and get someone else to get you off your points. Police officer would have seen who was driving.

If we want to wreck careers of all politicians who LIE (or amend and massage the truth), we will only have a few Genes posters able to sit in House of Commons and House of Lords. Rest of population will be excluded surely.

Turn the tables - if I was imprisoned, for whatever reason, would I get a decent job afterwards?
No. If I was imprisoned for what the Huhnes were imprisoned for, I would be considered a lier, cheat and untrustworthy.

One can only presume it's to the advantage of the company to have such a snake in their company. Why? Well, as an ex MP, and a lier to boot, I expect he knows how to 'filter' money into certain pockets.

Senior civil servants and armed forces officers may not accept a civil appt where they had dealings for 2 years from leaving ukgov / armed forces. It would seem reasonable that the same applied to govt ministers.

Why anybody would want to employ a convicted liar is anybody's guess.

"The Advisory Commission on Business Appointments, which advises the Prime Minister on new jobs for former ministers, have given him the green light to accept the position."

That is the clue to the answer you seek, OFITG. No doubt Zilkha feel they may get at least £100,000 profit from employing Huhne, otherwise they would not have employed him. Whatever we may think about him and his wife personally, they are both very capable and clever people who can earn a good living.

Chris Huhne has landed a £100,000 job as an executive of an energy company just three months after leaving prison.

The former energy secretary, who was jailed for lying about a decade old speeding offence, has been employed in a two-day-a-week role as the European chairman of American firm Zilkha Biomass Energy.

The Advisory Commission on Business Appointments, which advises the Prime Minister on new jobs for former ministers, have given him the green light to accept the position.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10234730/Chris-Huhne-employed-as-100000-a-year-energy-executive.html

This is happening more and more and In my opinion ex-government ministers and civil servants should be barred from taking positions in the private sector where that position has any connection with the area they had responsibility for when they were in office.

In the case of Chris Hume, he had dealings with this company when he was Energy Secretary and he should have been blocked from being able to take this appointment.

The whole jobs for the boys and lobbying circus stinks and opens the door wide to abuse and corruption :-|