Former energy secretary Chris Huhne is to receive a £17,000 payoff after quitting the Cabinet to fight charges of perverting the course of justice, it has been confirmed.

Who knew that Chris Huhne's late mother, Ann, née Murray, was once upon a time the voice of the speaking clock? Very few would seem to be the literal answer to that. Her name does not appear in any of the websites devoted to chronicling the history of the speaking clock, either here or in her native Canada. For reasons unknown, this occasional actress has been airbrushed out of speaking clock history.

IMHO: The first sketch to come out of the hearing of Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce this week spoke a thousand words.

David Laws is to make a spectacular comeback to the Cabinet later this year, senior coalition sources confirmed last night.

It's been quite a week for pre-judgment. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Condemned in the court of public opinion, but not in any court of law, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, was pressured into giving up a bonus he was entitled to. The former head of the same bank, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of the knighthood he had received when financial recklessness was seen as audacity – a virtue more than a vice – even though there was not a whiff of personal dishonesty.

Andy McSmith charts his dazzling rise in the City and Westminster – and a speedy fall

Ed Davey has replaced Chris Huhne as Energy Secretary, Downing Street announced today.

This is the full text of the resignation letter sent by former energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and Mr Clegg's reply:

The Government is to fight on after losing its bid in the Court of Appeal to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes.

He would have made an infinitely braver champion than Nick Clegg of his party's core beliefs

What halcyon days, on and off the pitch, for Sunderland FC. Mackem fans will be so thrilled by the team's revival that they will forgive David Miliband for dividing his time even further. Reportedly paid £50,000 to be the club's vice-president, he already moonlights as an MP, of course. He is also reported to trouser £92k as a consultant to a Californian energy firm, and more from speechifying in the Middle East.

Tom Greatrex, the shadow energy minister, is demanding a full government investigation into controversial “fracking” technology used to dislodge natural gas trapped in rocks after a new report linked the practice to water pollution for the first time.