I had wondered for some time if in fact Chris Huhne was guilty, of course following on from the mess of a certain Tory Peer being wrongly accused of crimes by those on Twitter, no blogger now comments on active legal processes, but privately I wondered, mostly because his legal team seemed to want to have trial thrown out that seemed rather desperate in my opinion.
Also his ex-wife was going to plead marital coercion which suggests that her defense includes and admission that he was indeed driving the car, to argue against her might lay him open to the charge of perjury.
But moving on to what we can all speculate the By-election. This is the first by-election in a Blue-yellow marginal this parliament, the rest have either been red-blue marginals or safe red.
The interesting question of what Labour voters will do. Traditionally the LDs have been able in the south to put the Labour squeeze on by telling their supporters that 'Labour can't win here'. This is true, but it is hard to argue that voting LibDem is the only way to oppose the Tories! They will have instead to argue to Labour voters that another Conservative strengthens that side of the coalition.
This election is far from easy from the Conservatives. UKIP may mount a challenge which could split their vote and the council is a virtual LibDem monopoly with only four seats going to the Blues. Councillors are you foot soldiers in a By-election and so that is going to hamper the Conservatives. They will therefore have to put out their brightest and their best. It could be Maria Hutchins their candidate at the last election, her website is down probably in readiness to put up an by-election version. That doesn't mean it will be her, it just means she is interested in the job. The LibDems may be tempted to go for a the local boy or girl someone who had worked the constituency for the local council like the chair Keith House. However I think this might be a mistake what they need is someone who has experience of opposition to the conservatives and a proven track record as a constituency MP. Someone who is a bigger hitter than a local cllr.
Am I the only one who thinks Sandra Gidley should be considered?
Almost probably.
Still, at least wont get done for contempt of court for saying it.