Revenge a dish Huhne is finding hard to stomach

Huhne reportedly told her he had 30 minutes to deal with the story, announced to the press that he was in a relationship with his former aide Carina Trimingham and went to the gym. Ms Pryce filed for divorce within a week.

In her shoes many of us can imagine reaching for the carving knife. Yet in reality we might just have stood there, stupefied, as we watched 26 years of married family life negated in as many minutes.

After the errant husband had gone; when the days, weeks then months passed, other thoughts would come to the fore.

There would be the realisation that news of an extra-marital affair no longer dents a political career. He wouldn’t be punished. In Huhne’s case the exact opposite happened: he continued in the cabinet post he had just been awarded.

There would be a realisation that the marriage had always been all about him. The house moves, the job compromises, the putting of your career onto the back burner.

Often in political marriages it involves the abandonment of a wife’s own career ambition.

Now it would become clear that it was a sacrifice for nothing. You would feel had.

Where children are involved (Vicky Pryce has five, three with Huhne) their hurt would have to be managed. Since they would still love and still need their father, criticism of him would have to be muted

What does a dumped wife do?

If she is a sage or a saint, she will reason that she is well rid of so self- serving a husband and simply move on with her own life. Vicky Pryce, a respected economist, has certainly moved on in career terms.

But if she is human there will be an appetite for that dish which is best served cold. In Huhne’s case revenge would need to be something that would derail the thing that matters greatly to him: his career.

Stating erroneously that his wife was driving when he committed a speeding offence would have just such a consequence. Is it a coincidence that just such a claim has arisen?

There is a taped telephone conversation about the matter. If a case is proved against him, it could oust him from the government and land him in court.

It could make him wish he’d allowed the mother of his children longer than 26 minutes to wrap up their life. Dump in haste, repent at leisure.

If – and we can only conjecture – that is a rough appraisal of the situation it would place Vicky Pryce in a long line of vengeful abandoned wives.

It’s no surprise that many of them have been married to politicians. During a documentary screened on Sunday night, Michael Portillo agreed that he shares with First Minister Alex Salmond, an appetite for risk. He talked about the thrill of walking a ridge between triumph and disaster and relishing the danger.

For some the thrill of politics is sufficient; for others it isn’t. The possibility of public exposure adds a further frisson to illicit sex. Wayward politicians are too many to number but range from Kennedy and Clinton to encompass Berlusconi , Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy and now Strauss-Kahn. In the UK they stretch from Lloyd George to Robin Cook, John Major and Boris Johnson with names too numerous to mention in between. It is a cross-party and international phenomenon.

In each case their wives have had to confront betrayal and rejection. So who has managed it with the greatest dignity?

John Major’s affair with Edwina Currie did not come to light until long after it was over. Norma Major is said to have given him an ultimatum when she discovered it: end it or lose the family.

Margaret Cook wrote a tell-all book after her husband dumped her at an airport when his extra marital affair was about to appear in a newspaper.

She told the world about his drinking habits and sexual peccadilloes. It improved her bank balance but did it dent her dignity? Maybe she overdid it. But she had been dignified for years and her only reward was to be betrayed.

I suppose the way a woman responds depends to what degree she is still invested in the marriage. Not all unions are idyllic and while rejection breaks loving hearts, it only dents pride.

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, had a skirmish with a young woman some years ago his wife was quoted saying; “It’s important for a politician to be able to seduce.”

Most women are not so cool. Hillary Clinton was visibly wounded and moved out from Bill’s shadow, forging a front-line career in her own right.

Vicky Pryce has also forged ahead in her career. She is a clever woman not given to histrionics. If she is behind Huhne’s current difficulties then she has played a blinder. For the charge that he lied about driving a speeding car could strip him of the life he delights in. And isn’t that precisely what he did to her?

Further, if he is brought down, it will have been by his own hand.

He will have time to ponder that he made three mistakes: the first to react as she says he did to a speeding charge; the second to underestimate his ex-wife: the third be so focused on pushing forward that he failed to watch his back.

It is arguable that the last is a greater weakness in a politician than a wandering libido.

As for their wives: first they must console themselves that the vast majority of politicians serve their time without ever (being caught) straying. That said, since unfaithful politicians are not new and are not shrinking in number, it seems advisable for women who marry them to retain a degree of independence.

They might also want to brush up on their filing skills. The Huhne story demonstrates that a full and well documented record can come in handy when all the power and all the ammunition lie with the opposition.

That way the wronged wife can get mad and get even.