PERHAPS Charlie Haughey was the ultimate free spirit. He did not even own his own clothes.

Deputy Luke “Ming” Flanagan has become hopelessly ensnared in his own hypocritical web of deception.

Disgraced former UK Cabinet minister Chris Huhne was ridiculed on his first day in jail when a warder called him to breakfast shouting “Order! Order!”, it was reported today.

A FORMER government minister and his ex-wife were sentenced to jail on Monday in the UK for swapping penalty points while, in our little Republic, allegations that TDs’ penalty points were mysteriously wiped create barely a ripple of controversy.

Disgraced former British energy minister Chris Huhne was yesterday jailed for eight months for lying to police about a speeding offence in a bizarre tale of adultery and revenge that gripped the public.

Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce are both facing jail in England after she was convicted of perverting the course of justice by taking speeding points for him a decade ago.

The Liberal Democrats have held on to the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire.

Disgraced MP Chris Huhne pressured his ex-wife into having an abortion because it was “bad timing”, she told a court.

Chris Huhne, former British minister, pleaded guilty on Feb 4 to perverting the course of justice by persuading his wife to accept penalty points on her driving licence for a speeding offence he had committed.

Former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has welcomed the decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy while he is facing allegations of racist abuse, insisting it is the same sanction any other public figure would face.

Chris Huhne resigned as Britain's Energy and Climate Change Secretary today after being charged with perverting the course of justice over allegations that he asked his ex-wife to take a speeding penalty for him.

Britain's Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is to face prosecution over allegations that he asked his ex-wife to take a speeding penalty for him, the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer announced today.

CLIMATE negotiators agreed a pact yesterday that would for the first time force all the biggest polluters to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the action plan was not aggressive enough to slow the pace of global warming.

GOVERNMENT ministers from across the world are joining UN climate talks in South Africa this week as Europe pushes for action on a new legally-binding deal to tackle global warming.

Two major energy firms are to work together in a bid to develop carbon capture and storage technology.

RUPERT MURDOCH flew into a political storm over his BSkyB takeover plans as he arrived in Britain to take personal charge of the phone-hacking scandal.

Rupert Murdoch flew into the UK to take personal charge of the phone hacking scandal today as pressure mounted on the Government to freeze News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BSkyB.

Proposals to change the way MPs are elected were decisively rejected by voters in a referendum across the UK today.

AUSTRIA has called for European nuclear power plants to face stress tests to reassure people worried by the crisis in Japan, while Britain and France have urged calm.

BP has unveiled an “historic” agreement with the Russian government in a £10bn (€11.85bn) deal which will open up unexplored reserves in the Arctic.

Expectations for the latest round of UN climate talks had been low in the run up to the conference, but negotiators have managed to keep the show on the road towards an ultimate deal on global warming.

More than 190 countries have struck an agreement at the latest round of UN climate talks that puts efforts to secure a new international deal to tackle global warming back on track.

Scottish MEPs this afternoon hailed a major victory when a call to end all new drilling for oil in European waters was overturned in the European Parliament.

A COMPANY in Britain has begun transforming human waste into renewable gas that powers homes for the first time.

BRITAIN is on track to have new nuclear power stations up and running within eight years, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne insisted yesterday.

David Cameron will begin work today on putting together his historic new coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat leader and “kingmaker” Nick Clegg will become Deputy Prime Minister and join four of his MPs in the UK’s first coalition Cabinet for 65 years.

Negotiators for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will meet today for a crunch meeting to spell out their demands for a deal which could see the parties form a coalition government in Britain.

Tory leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg held face-to-face talks tonight as they continued their attempts to thrash out a power-sharing deal.

British Liberal Democrat Party leader Nick Clegg today said he would fight for "fundamental" reform of Britain's electoral system in talks with other parties on the shape of the future government, following Thursday's inconclusive general election.

Nick Clegg will today address British Liberal Democrat MPs in an attempt to gain their backing for his negotiating strategy as he embarks on discussions with the Conservatives that could force Gordon Brown out of No 10.

BNP leader Nick Griffin said today he planned to complain to the BBC about his “unfair” treatment on 'Question Time'.

SIX people were arrested last night as anti-fascist protesters broke into the BBC’s west London headquarters ahead of a far-right party leader’s appearance on a leading political debate show.

Three people were arrested tonight as anti-fascist protesters demonstrating against BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on 'Question Time' broke through a security cordon outside BBC Television Centre.

Several anti-fascist protesters demonstrating against BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on 'Question Time' broke through a police cordon outside BBC Television Centre today.

SIX Scotland Yard officers faced being interviewed as criminal suspects over claims that they tortured suspected drug dealers.

A BRITISH junior minister announced yesterday he will return more than £40,000 (€44,586) in taxpayer-funded allowances, as the total repaid by MPs caught up in the expenses scandal passed the £100,000 mark.

Nick Clegg was today elected the new leader of the British Liberal Democrats.

The farming industry was dealt another blow tonight as a new case of bird flu was discovered in turkeys.

The British Liberal Democrats will announce a timetable for appointing a successor to Menzies Campbell today.

Menzies Campbell was today elected the new leader of the Liberal Democrats.

POLITICS, as diverse as they come, dominated the media in Britain yesterday in the wake of an admission by the Liberal Democrat president, that he was homosexual and the “outing” in a different context of George Galloway from a television show.