Huhne lays into Cameron and Osborne at Cabinet

Steve Tierney

Wel let's hope that the Conservative leadership are in a: "Bring it on!" frame of mind. : )

Hugh Janus

Both Huhne and Cable are complete incompetents. Call Me Dave is treading a fine line between keeping them in post and showing everyone how incapable the Limp Dums are when in power, or alternatively ditching them before they finally sink the whole enterprise.

The latter option must be becoming increasingly tempting.

Jannie Geldenhuys

Huhne is making an idiot of himself.

To flounce out of the Cabinet over this rather than over his tuition fee pledge shows how completely distorted the Lib Dem's priorities are.

They really have been rumbled as being wholly unsuitable to be in government.

Victor Southern

Good bye Huhne by name and hoon by nature.

Andy Dawson

for what it's worth, there's been some muttering around the energy industry (who obviously have to deal with DECC), about Huhne for some time. It's been embarrasingly obvious he's been utterly sidelined, and the department is in fact being run by Charles Hendry, who's in direct charge of all the key policy area (Smart Metering, new nuclear, the energy market reforms).

The grapevine has it that Huhne was "mugged" in his first few days in office, by a briefing from David Mackay, DECC's Chief Scientific Officer, who systematically shredded Huhne's positions on energy policy going forward by showing them to be utterly naive in terms of technology and cost. Huhne's credibility within the department collapsed, and he's proven incapable of recovering it. Most of the speculation has been about how long it would take him to implode - he's got a large ego, and being bypassed like this apparently rankels.

Nicholas

Sack him Cameron. It will benefit you in several ways and it will certainly benefit the British people.

Huhne can then go and join the Green Party or some other communist rabble.

Andy Carpark

Daddy, what is that man for?

Nicholas Hallam

Huhne may dream of a Labour/LibDem coalition, but his brief experience of power is nearly over.

Andy Dawson, I find your comments enormously heartening.

charles hercock

Huhne is an immoral leftie-let him go

Matt

Might provide a neat way to bring David Laws back into cabinet if Huhne goes. Would sharpen the distinction between orange book liberals in the tent and the left outside. In a leadership bid Huhne would have to play to that division and yet again the Liberals will start to split......history repeats itself.

General Zod

Huhne and Cable should be sacked this weekend. It is one thing to disagree with the PM, but to be petulant, personal and childish about it should result in forfeiting the ministerial job.

Frank P

"That Huhne is leading the anti-Tory charge even within Cabinet will also stoke the rumours about what the Enery Secretary is planning to do after Thursday’s referendum."

The Dick Enery Secretary, I presume?

Mike, Brighton

Taxi for Huhne! A man looking worriedly over his shoulder at Tim Farron......

stepney

An incompetent's ineptitude will always be revealed.

Huhne may have been a great Lib Dem MP (in the eyes of his party that is), but he has proved himself to be, without any doubt, utterly useless at both his ministerial brief and his duties as a Cabinet Member.

"Better to keep your mouth shut and let the world take you for a fool than to open your mouth and prove the fact".

Time for the self-important Nebbish to shuffle off.

charles hercock

Andy Dawson

Are you related to Andy Dawson of the secret cinema? If so we must respect your insider knowledge

normanc

It's staggering that nobodies like Huhne and Cable, who should have spent their political careers languishing on the backbenches in between filling in expense forms and trying to flatter young female constituents at surgery, should now find themselves pivotal to the future of the government of this country.

That Cameron feels unable to act, and Clegg apparently unwilling to, is also bad for the country and it's governance.

Paul

It just show Huhne to be a self-regarding, unpleasant individual who should be fired - if not for being so obnoxious with his Nazi metaphors against Sayeeda Warsi (didn't he say something similar against William Hague?), then for the fact we're going to need lots of candles thanks to his incompetent energy policies.

Ed P

Clegg is bad enough, but Huhne was only just beaten by him for the Limp-Dumbs "leadership". As many have said above, these people are not fit for purpose and should go.

Charlie

Huhne pontificating about integrity given his personal peccadilloes is quite amusing. He only denigrates himself further with every utterance and Cameron (and Clegg) would do well to be shot of him.. or they could wait for him to implode.

oldtimer

The departure of Huhne, if it occurs, would be a welcome development.

Nevertheless, despite And Dawson`s remarks above, we remain saddled with the Climate Change Act (author E Miliband) and the Carbon Plan that sets out how it will be implemented (Foreward signed by Cameron, Clegg and Huhne). Under that plan they have already set a carbon price for carbon trading purposes, not forgetting the feed in tariffs for solar and wind energy set last year.

Despite several requests, I have been unable to find out what, if any, studies DECC and/or the Treasury have made on the economics of wind farms and solar energy in Germany, Denmark or Spain. Too embarassed to say probably.

It requires not just a new person in charge at DECC, but a grown up who actually understands the realities and economics of the nation`s energy supply system. Otherwise we will be down the tubes in no time at all.

Rhoda Klapp

..and we're back. Back in the comfort zone, of course. Another re-run of the ongoing huhne sable clegg split theme. Look. I know I go on about it. But you have to realise that it remains trivial gossipy weasel crap.

Now, I know the AV thing has to be covered because it is an upcoming vote. I know that events such as the wedding or the death of OBL have to be covered at length, and have follow-on stories spun off about what is likely to happen nextt. That is the stuff of a weekly political paper. What I absolutely do not understand is why no better story can be found than that Chris Huhne is an arse. We all know.

No, what about super-injunctions. Not the ones about footballers or actors, but the ones about family courts. There's an ongoing scandal. Or find your own, it can't be too hard, I know a dozen blogs which can actually find their own stories. This is amateur individuals sitting at home, finding stories long before the MSM gets hold of them. Then there are chronic things which actually matter. Can't you think of any of them? No, evidently not, all you can think of is it read the Guardian or the Times, see what they are writing about, tune into Today to get the day's agenda, and try to slant it differently here. It is pathetic. Get a grip.

Weds

Huhne rhymes with buffoon.
A clear example of a pompous Lib Dem twat whose ego hugely outstrips his ability.
Now that he has spat the dummy out of the pram will he do the honourable thing and resign from Government.
I'm sure he could do an excellent impersonation of savaging the dead sheep on the front bench.

Perry

Nasty little creep.

denis cooper

"Daddy, what is that man for?"

To help give the government a Commons majority, the Tories led by Cameron having failed to achieve that on their own at the last election.

Occasional Ostrich

Excellent rant, Rhoda!

Daniel Furr

Huhne and Cable's biggest problem is the main figures of rebellion in the party (Kennedy, Sir Ming, etc) are quite happy with the coalition now. Any defiant opposition -or challenge- to the leadership will end in tears for them.

So are the parliamentary party and activists. Nearly all Liberal Democrats know Cameron will get a majority - if an early election is called.

The justification for entering a coalition with the Tories was the deficit. To break it, for partisan reasons, and not deal with the fiscal situation will be met by an unforgiving public.

Jambo

Why was it out of order for Huhne to say something in Cabinet?
In a Cabinet you need a degree of trust and he feels that this trust has been undermined -rightly or wrongly.
If you cannot raise that in Cabinet then when should he raise it?
At least he had the guts to stand up and be counted unlike Clegg.

I am no great fan of Huhne but I don't see why it was inappropriate - and surely if it was then it should have been Cameron that stated this rather then Osborne - or does he chair Cabinet now?

Baroness Helena Handcart QC

Not even sufficient of the Lib Dems liked Huhne enough to make him leader. Oh dear. Perhaps he'll threaten to sue them too.

TrevorsDen

In a coalition, then Clegg holds Huhne's job...

Huhne out Laws in would have to be a massive improvement. But the last time i saw Huhne on TV a few days ago he was talking up the coalition.

I would though imagine it would have been a big shock to Huhne to actually be in govt and faced with the stark fallacies of his opportunistic stance in opposition. It might comfort him to know I am thinking of voting YES.

Liz Brown

If that vile Huhne were to walk after Thursday's vote, i, for one, would be delighted. Perhaps we would then have someone at energy who has a basic understanding of the country's energy needs and heavily subsidised windmills aren't the answer

Maggie

Chris Huhne hasn't got the bottle for high office. No sane man would be so lacking in self-awareness that he would go round having public tantrums on Newsnight and in Cabinet meetings. He can't seem to cope with the pressures and he looks like he's in the throes of a nervous breakdown.

John A

Huhn is german for chicken

Robert Kaye

Memo to Chris Huhne. If you're thinking of walking out of cabinet in protest at the NO campaign, you need to do it in the next forty hours. You can't wait until after the referendum. That would just make you look like a bad loser and perhaps more importantly, someone who wasn't prepared to accept the will of the people in a referendum you and your colleagues had demanded.

And if you're going to do so on the basis of the other side's honesty, you should have made sure that every single thing that the Yes campaign said was unimpeachable. Too late on that score already.

Mark Cannon

If the result is close on Thursday then Huhne could resign with some sort of credibility. But if the margin is 10% plus (as the polls suggest - fingers crossed) then he would look a complete idiot who could not accept the verdict of the electorate. It would be excellent if he flounced out in the face of a decisive "no" vote.

David Ossitt

Andy Dawson.

Thank you for your post.

Geoffrey HARRISON

"Why was it out of order for Huhne to say something in Cabinet? "

Because this was not Cabinet or government business.

Keith Williams

I can't decide what Huhne is up to. Either he has realised he is out of his depth with the Energy/Climate brief and is looking for an excuse to walk away from it or he has his eye on the leadership if Clegg is ejected. Given his performance in post so far my money is on the former.

John Richardson

Say what you like about Mr Huhne, however I remember a few years ago he was giving a TV interview when he said;
'Look, I didn't get into politics to make a lot of money'.

No, he was simply alluding to his personal wealth. Several millions.

Then it transpired, during the 'expenses scandle' that he was actually 'rinsing' the taxpayer for, for instance, the cost of his trouser press.

I suppose you'll remember that?

Here are a few details from Wikipedia:-

"MPs, Huhne was reported to have claimed for various suspect items including groceries, fluffy dusters and a trouser press. In 2006, he claimed £5,066 for painting work on his garden fences and chairs. His office running costs included 62p for semi-skimmed milk, chocolate HobNobs (79p), tea bags (89p) and a bus ticket (£3.20). Other items claimed included a cheese muffin (99p), bacon flavour Wheat Crunchies (28p) and Ready Brek (£1.81). He submitted a bill for £85.35 bill for the "mounting, framing and inscription of photo of Chris Huhne".."

This guy is pure class.

How many rich men claim for the fluffy dusters and (bacon) Wheat Crunchies ?

You're all just jealous. GET YOUR OWN CRUNCHIES! After you've paid for his....

We will be even poorer without him.

Barry Bilge

"The fact that this row broke out in Cabinet shows just how badly relations within the coalition have been damaged bv the AV campaign."

Or... Huhne is just an idiot who is rather up himself.

tom jones

What worries me is that Huhne only just missed out on being Lib Dem leader and I'm sure 80%+ of his party would prefer to have him as leader than Clegg. Huhne would pull the Lib Dems out of the coalition IMO and this would be bad for us. Lots of people want the coalition to fail (Labour especially). I want it to succeed because I'd rather have some Tory policies to be getting implented than having Labour ones continuing to ruin our country. Without the Lib Dems we would be even weaker than Major in the mid 90s. We need Clegg and we need the Lib Dems. It's only 4 more years! We need to fight the real enemy (Labour) & not carry on with this infighting.

Rhoda Klapp

I return to this after it has probably become no longer top topic because I have seen it alleged that the news here comes direct from briefings given by none other than Huhne himself. After all, cabinet meetings are not intended to be bruited about the net on the same day, so some attendee must have done it. Which gives a further level of triviality to the story, and a further reason not to keep returning to this tired tale.

Note to Spectator journos. You do not have to play the lobby's game. Remember the magician. Don't watch the hands. This is nothing but misdirection. Look for what is going on elsewhere. Find a bloody story yourself. Sources close to Rhoda suspect you are nothing but a lazy crew who go with the flow a little too much.

TGF UKIP

Having predicted some while back that Huhne would be the most disruptive and the most likely to flounce out first, I'm going to stick with that prediction.

The other thing that should be factored into the Huhne equation, though, is that he's been very careful to stay clear of sticking it to Labour, even though the mess that Labour left at Energy was at least as appalling as anything they left behind elsewhere.

Energy is an industry I follow pretty closely, and while he is widely scorned within that industry, he will be leaving behind an industry in even more of a mess than he found it with even more ultra green policies. All no doubt so that he and his new pals will be able to snipe in the future from their Left/Green perspective.

M L Bonwick-Jones

Why are Chris Huhne and the lib Dem's only attacking the Conservatives in this campagne when more than half of labour mp's and a few members of the shadow cabernet are also against Av and why did they not take up Gordon Brown's offer and why when a few years back Caroline Lucas asked for the lib Dem's support when requesting a change in our voting system they did not wish to be involved: It seems that they are playing their usual games.
I have a message to George Osbourne the work experience party cannot cope, they are holding this goverment back and need to grow up!Free Chris Huhne from this goverment.

Martin C

What's Huhne planning to do if AV is rejected in the referendum? Resign, with any luck.

WillB85

Doesn't sound like Dave and George even care about this self-important waste of space.

As if the Prime Minister is answerable to him. Same as Cable, he's fighting this battle which in his head is a noble stand, but appears to everyone else as embarrassingly moronic.

Peter Geany

Andy Dawson, your words bring a certain confirmation of everyone’s feelings that Huhne has been utterly useless in his job, and is bereft of any understanding of his energy brief. He should be sacked for today’s impetuous behaviour, and probably will be. However I have to agree with oldtimer that we don’t seem to have a coherent energy policy despite the fact that Charles Hendry is supposedly running the show. I agree with TGF UKIP that the DECC is in a worse mess now that when Labour left, and this has the hand of Cameron on it.
Energy market reforms seems to be another way of saying energy rationing, and smart metres are the tool that will be used to punish people for using what others will decide is too much energy. These smart metres are sold as the tool to help the consumer but will be just a stalking horse for state control of energy, and for anyone wanting this country to progress again then they should be resisted at all cost without absolute cast iron guarantees they will not be used by utilities to control domestic energy use.
All these policies are based on the totally false premise that CO2 is the major driver of Climate. It seems the Political Class are going to be the last to understand that if you pour millions into the coffers of environmental NGO’s, and dubious universities you are of course going to get the answer you seek. The problem is that the majority of these ivory tower numpties are not as smart as the average person and the electorate has seen through all the doom and gloom and alarmism. It is time we reclaimed our country back from these morons.

Remittance Man

Let the bugger go, I say. It would be the ideal opportunity to dump the hoon's moronic (and economically suicidal) greenie policies.

Remittance Man

btw, What is this obsession some people have about getting David Laws back into cabinet?

One of the few clear messages to come out of last year's election was that the public wanted something different to NuLabour's moral corruption. So why the hell are the coalition so desperate to create their own version of Mandelson? Pathetic excuses aside, the guy was caught with his fingers in the till. By rights he shouldn't even be in parliament let alone contemplating a return to ministerial rank, pay and perks.

Andy Dawson

Charles Hercock – “Are you related to Andy Dawson of the secret cinema?” – not to the best of my knowledge.....

TGIF UKIP – “he will be leaving behind an industry in even more of a mess than he found it with even more ultra green policies.”
And
Peter Geany – “I agree with TGF UKIP that the DECC is in a worse mess now that when Labour left”
Sorry, can’t agree with either of those. Even on diversity of supply grounds (ignoring climate change), the reforms proposed are remarkably well crafted – the CfD auction and carbon price floor are good mechanism for getting us a substantial volume of non-fossil fuel based generation at the lowest cost, and the proposed standby capacity payments are the most spectacular outbreak of common sense in energy policy for years. None are exactly favourable to intermittent renewables like wind, if anything they favour nuclear and gas respectively..
The big difference is, under Hendry, there’s actually some sense of direction on these programmes, and certainly, you’ll find that EDFE and Horizon (the RWE/EON JV) think they’ve had some clarity on the direction for nuclear new-build for the first time in years – at least that was the case up to Fukushima, and frankly the Weightman review is the least we can expect by way of a response to that.
There are other outbreaks of good sense, too – the CCS contest is now open to pre-combustion gas fired plant, instead of only post-combustion coal, the original terms being a policy that only Miliband could have come up with....
Smart metering is an interesting case....I’d have thought any good, free-marketeer (which I count myself to be) would be keen on having a market where individual bear the cost consequences of their behaviour. I’m no fan of how the smart programme’s been run to date, but allowing prices to reflect the cost of peaking power doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Andy Dawson

Matt,

re

"Might provide a neat way to bring David Laws back into cabinet if Huhne goes. Would sharpen the distinction between orange book liberals in the tent and the left outside. In a leadership bid Huhne would have to play to that division and yet again the Liberals will start to split......history repeats itself"

You might wonder if that's the Cameron strategy (if he's got an appropriately strategic and/or sneaky mindset).

The reality is, the main beneficiaries of a LD split and/or implosion will be the Tories, not Labour - there's that swathe of seats in the West Country and South-West London which are Tory-LD contests. Split the LDs (with the "Orange Bookers" staying with the coalition, the others flouncing off), then do a deal with those who remain in the coalition not to put up a Tory candidate against them, You've probably landed an extra 30 seats.

Add that to the removal of Labour's inbuilt advantage through the reduction of MPs and boundary revisions, and you've just stacked the odds well in favour of a second Cameron term.

peter geany

Andy Dawson Perhaps I didn’t quiet phrase my words well enough to get across what I consider to be a coherent energy policy. Firstly I’m all for a free market, and that means we keep regulation confined to those areas that are to do with surety of supply, safety and protecting consumers. Over regulation just creates monopolies, and there is only one thing worse than a state monopoly and that is a private one. We need real competition, and that means an easy way for new generators or suppliers into our market. The coherent policy I refer to is all about carbon. Nothing can be more incoherent that putting a price on carbon except perhaps CCS. CCS is a technology that increases fuel burn for a given output on top of the huge additional capital costs. On top of this is a complete underestimated of the costs of development and no guarantee thus far that the technology actually works on an industrial scale. Then we have the problem of what to do with the CO2, as none of the proposed solutions are really viable. So no matter how clearly and concisely you feel that the DECC policies are being enunciated to the generators, and I do not doubt what you say, the policies on Carbon are just balmy.

We all know that Hydrocarbon fuels are limited resource, except that much evidence points to oil and gas being formed as part of an on-going process with in earth. Coal on the other hand clearly comes from trees; whereas the fossil evidence for oil and gas being solely formed from dead animals may prove to be coincidental and misleading. However it is generally accepted that they are finite, (not by me I may add but they could be economically finite) but they are not going to run out any time soon. And whilst the costs are predicted to rise man’s ingenuity and technology always finds a way around production costs. Shale oil and gas are one such example, that 5 short years ago very few were aware of, and even 2 years ago many from the camp of received wisdom said was too expensive and would never be commercial. Now we have a situation of 250 years of Gas supplies from shale, and this before any real systematic exploration has been done. This gives us more of a breathing space to introduce the smaller and cheaper 4th generation nuclear plants. All electricity will in time be generated from nuclear power.

When manufacturing first moved from west to east is was for those industries that were labour intensive. This was understandable as our living standards rose. Now we are pushing out the hi tech stuff that is energy intensive, except that we have more energy efficient processors and in theory should not be at a competitive disadvantage with the east as we all have access to the same raw energy. It is the incoherent policies around Carbon that is causing our current un-competitiveness, and all for no discernable benefit. I hope my position is clearer.

Expose Cameron

Let us be clear, Cameron has taken money for his campaign from corrupt bankers, Russian oligarchs, and other standard Toryhugging dodgy millionaires. That he and Osbourne should pretend that they have no share in the lies of the Yes campaign is another lie. Whatever you may think about alternative votes, for the Prime Minister to behave like this is a disgrace. Sadly Cameron has shown that it is exactly how he and his phonehacking press corps choose to run the country. The sooner the corruption of this man and his PFI nose in the trough cronies is exposed, the better for Britian.

Anthony Dunn

I am inclined simply to say "Oh diddums...!" to most of the Tory posters here. If you don't like a bit of criticism, then don't dish it out yourselves. I am struggling to recall any "Yes" leaflets from either the cross-party or LibDem "Yes" campaigns that have personally targeted either Dave or Gideon - in stark contrast to the personal attacks on Nick Clegg in every single item of "No" literature which is, by the way, 99% funded by Tory donors and the campaign which is almost entirely run by Tory hacks. The denials that Dave and Gideon have been claiming for themselves and the "No" campaign are about as credible as those from Sinn Fein/IRA spokesmen during the Troubles - as in INcredible. If you play with fire, expect to get burnt.