Vicky Pryce has been stripped of her honour and humiliated anew. Is that really what you wanted?
The sorry tale of Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce, the speeding points and the jail sentences was a perfect illustration of the old adage: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we leave our wives for a bisexual press strategist."
There was a new twist last week when Ms Pryce was stripped of the official honour she was given in 2009: Companion of the Order of the Bath.
This was thanks to the eager efforts of Andrew Gwynne MP, who wrote to David Cameron demanding he convene a special meeting of the honours forfeiture committee.
"I have no doubt," wrote Mr Gwynne, confidently, "that the vast majority of the public will find it profoundly unacceptable that a convicted criminal with such disregard for British justice continues to hold such an illustrious honour."
I don't share Mr Gwynne's certainty. I would have bet that "the vast majority of the public" don't know what the Order of the Bath is. Nor whether Vicky Pryce deserved or deserves it.
After a long Google, I still don't fully understand the Order of the Bath, though I've learned it is less "illustrious" than the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick (dormant). Neither is it as illustrious as the Knighthood of the Bath , an honour removed from Robert Mugabe, whose sins are right up there with taking your husband's speeding points.
In other words, the CB is not a very big deal. Vicky Pryce was given it in recognition of her public service as an economist. Looking at the state of the economy, you might wonder what she did, in advance of 2009, that was so reward-worthy. But it was not snatched back for economic reasons.
I am interested that Andrew Gwynne can speak with "no doubt" on behalf of "the vast majority of the public". I'm sure he is decent and well-meaning, like most MPs, but I'm afraid he is one of those who has never done much else.
Andrew Gwynne studied politics at university. On leaving, he immediately (aged 21) became England's youngest councillor. At 30, he was the youngest MP in the 2005 Labour government.
I wish it hadn't become so unfashionable for people to do a few years as postmen, doctors, teachers, or anything at all, before going into politics. It does make one wonder, when they sound off about "the vast majority of the public", whether they have spent any time being part of that public before splintering off into its representative political wing.
Mr Gwynne is now a shadow health minister. I'm relieved everything is so hunky dory in the health service that he can spare the time to kvetch about what Vicky Pryce puts on her stationery but I suspect the "vast majority of the public" are more scandalised by dodgy hospital death rates.
This is not to say you couldn't make people angry about Pryce's honour, and delight them with its removal, by drawing attention to it. People are awfully quick to condemn these days and awfully keen on public humiliation. It is as though there is a trace of troll in all of us.
Certainly, the public seemed pleased by the original jailing of Huhne and Pryce. People did not like those two. They thought he was a faithless husband, she was scary and vindictive – and many have a knee-jerk dislike of all public figures anyway. Everyone said that the trauma of their son, exposed in those heartbreaking texts to his father, was a reflection on the bad parenting of two people who had failed to protect their children from the fight. That's why the prison sentences were well received.
You know Roger and Joan, that lovely married couple in your street? The ones who look out for elderly neighbours and feed your cat when you're away? If they secretly shared their speeding points, you would not think they should go to prison for it. You would think that was hysterical, trivial, a waste of public money.
The difference with the Huhnes was they were disliked. But being unlikable is not an offence for which we currently send people to prison. I feel like we're heading in that direction but we're not there yet.
This was brought home to me the night we discussed the Huhnes on Heresy, a programme I work on for Radio 4. I asked the audience how they would feel if the third character in the drama – Carina Trimingham, the PR woman for whom Huhne left his wife (but who was, of course, nothing to do with the speeding offence) – went to prison as well. And they cheered. They cheered.
As the Lib Dems warm to their new-found power, enjoying law-making and authority – particularly in their readiness to seek greater press restrictions rather than enforce current law more effectively – I worry if anyone is a true liberal any more.
I wonder if anyone still thinks it's possible to disapprove without trying to silence, censor or punish. I wonder if there's anyone left who thinks freedom (including the freedom to offend and disgust) is the most important thing of all.
I don't like internet trolls. I don't like certain sorts of intrusive reporter and nasty columnist. From afar, I don't warm to Vicky Pryce. But I'm sure there's plenty about me that they wouldn't like either. We still need to rub along together.
Compassion is still more important than disapproval, surely? Pryce has suffered enough. I hope Andrew Gwynne is wrong in his doubtless faith that "the vast majority of the public" desired to see her punished further and that our biggest problem is career MPs who are out of sync with the rest of us.
But if he's right, I am afraid that's worse.
