The 10p Tax U-turn

It's been fascinating watching this develop over the past couple of weeks.

I haven't blogged on it before now because I was waiting to see how it ended. And it has ended in abject humiliation for Gordon Brown!

As the Spectator points out, at PMQ's today,

Brown started by trashing the 10p tax band he introduced – unfair, he says, 85% of the benefits go to the richest. He is just making himself look stupid. Most in that chamber remember him introducing this new band with much fanfare. Why did he do so, if it’s so regressive?

Cameron went on the “massive loss of authority” Brown has suffered in his farrago. “So can he tell us – is he making this changes because he thought he’d lose the vote next week?” Brown answers with a straight face “We have said for some time we would do more to help people in low income.” Priceless! So, entirely random timing – elections next week and all

order-order.com takes the opportunity to rewind the clock a bit and describe how on the recent USA trip

The PM appeared to be either in complete denial or out of touch with reality. He was also close to losing self-control and on the edge of throwing yet another tantrum.

What a guy we have in charge of the country! Totally blind to the effect of the changes. Totally refusing to admit he was wrong until his political future was on the precipice. then he has the cheeks to turn around and say the 10p tax band was always "unfair" anyway, even though he was the Chancellor that introduced it.

What a complete an utter joke of a man he is!

What happens when you open a can of worms..

So the BBC's Nick Robinson has been reporting on the row over MP's expenses, and how they should be publishe because of legitimate public interest in how public money is being spent.

Fair enough, but leading political blogger Guido Fawkes politely asked the BBC for the same information regarding Nick Robinson's expense. After all the BBC is funded by the public as well and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Quote from Guido regarding the response he got from the BBC

He doesn't say why he thinks he shouldn't tell his paymasters his expenses yet MPs should.

Your request falls outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act because the BBC and the other public service broadcasters are covered by the Act only in respect of information held for purposes “other than those of journalism, art or literature”

Well that argument seems flawed on two counts. Firstly the cost of a bottle of wine ordered by Nick at the telly taxpayer's expense is not information held for the purposes of journalism. It is information held, by law, for the purposes of accounting. Guido has not FoI'd his notes of the lunch, he simply wants to know how many pound notes a bottle of wine poured down the throat of a politician costs the licence payers.

On his BBC blog Nick Robinson refers back to the BBC letter to Guido to justify why he doesn't need to publicize his expenses.

As Guido rightfully points out though, he didn't ask for the BBC to disclose who Nick friendly sources of information are, or what they discussed over that public funded bottle of wine, he just ask how much public money had been spent.

While the BBC is totally right in wanting MP's expenses to be made public, it should also ensure it's own house is in order and that they meet the same standard that they are asking MP's to comply to. After all public money is public money.

F1 returns to the BBC

Bernie Ecclestone, chief executive of Formula One Administration Limited, said: "I am delighted to conclude this new deal with the BBC.

"I wish to thank ITV for their commitment to Formula One and the high quality of their coverage.

"It is an exciting time in Formula One and the BBC has some innovative new ideas to consolidate and expand our UK fanbase."

BBC Sport director of sport rights Dominic Coles said on BBC Sport online: "The biggest motorsporting event in the world is returning home after 12 years.

"We were delighted when Bernie Ecclestone approached us about the return of F1 to the BBC.

"F1 is a crown jewel of sports broadcasting, so to bring the rights back to their traditional home from 2009 is tremendously exciting.

"Fans will be able to enjoy uninterrupted, state of the art and innovative coverage from BBC Sport, across all of our TV, radio and new media platforms, for the first time since 1996."

Good news! No more add breaks just when an overtake is about to happen and no more James Allen (hopefully)

I do have some concerns though, namely that we wont get as much pre-race build up as we do now. To be fair to ITV they have excellent pre-race build up that lasts a good hour. Ialso hope that the BBC will continue to show Qualifying live, or it will be a major step backwards.

Overall I think it's a good thing though. I hope they keep Martin Brundle as he's the best thing about ITV's coverage, and losing him would be a huge loss. I wouldn't mind if the BBC got Steve Ryder back to present it as well, he's done a good job since Jim Rosenthal left.

Beyond those 2 I couldn't care less about the rest of the ITV muppets, though Mark "I forgot what I was saying in the middle of a sentence" Blundell is good for a few laughs from time to time.

Grand Slam & McLaren win in Australia

Oh Hell yeah!

A perfect sporting weekend where I'm concerned!

Looking Good

Pole for Lewis Hamilton then!

Still very nervous about the Wales game, but confident now about the Grand Prix.

Raikkonen's really screwed it up so big result for the Silver Arrows today!

C'mon Lewis

Big Weekend of Sport

Of course it's not just the start of the F1 season this weekend (thank god, it's been a long winter!) it's also the climax of the 6 nations with Wales going for their second Grand Slam in 3 years.

We haven't quite sparkled in this years tournament like we did in 2005, but Gatland and Edwards have made a huge impact in getting the boys to think on their feet, not panic and play intelligent rugby.

We're going in to each game with a distinct plan, you can see they've done their home work and know how to wear down the opposing team.

Once we do cut lose, well, Shane Williams is easily the man of the tournament, and both Byrne and Henson are having storming seasons.

France is going to be difficult, they have chopped and changed they're team so much this season, but it's a sign of respect, that they're bringing they're big guns to Cardiff.

We'll see. I think we'll win the championship anyway, as I cant see France wining by a 20 point margin, but for us to win the game we're going to have to do everything we've done well in the previous 4 games better, and we really have to cut out the mistakes and stupid penalties.

If we can do that, and I think we can, then we have a great chance.

Who would have imagined this after the World Cup?

C'mon Cymru!!

McLaren in the mix

Times from Friday testing in Australia

Australian GP free practice session 2 times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m26.559s
2. WEBBER Red Bull 1m27.473s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.640s
4. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.683s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m28.037s
6. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m28.208s
7. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.292s
8. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.352s
9. FISICHELLA Force India 1m28.469s
10. GLOCK Toyota 1m28.582s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m28.632s
12. HEIDFELD BMW 1m28.731s
13. ALONSO Renault 1m28.779s
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m28.849s
15. KUBICA BMW 1m28.860s
16. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m29.077s
17. SUTIL Force India 1m29.161s
18. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m29.193s
19. PIQUET Renault 1m29.518s
20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m29.605s
21. SATO Super Aguri 1m30.663s
22. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m31.527s

Australian GP free practice session 1 times

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m26.461s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m26.948s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m26.958s
4. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.114s
5. WEBBER Red Bull 1m28.263s
6. ALONSO Renault 1m28.360s
7. KUBICA BMW 1m28.579s
8. GLOCK Toyota 1m28.913s
9. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m28.957s
10. TRULLI Toyota 1m29.014s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m29.124s
12. FISICHELLA Force India 1m29.230s
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m29.301s
14. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m29.363s
15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.533s
16. HEIDFELD BMW 1m29.561s
17. SUTIL Force India 1m30.155s
18. PIQUET Renault 1m30.357s
19. SATO Super Aguri 1m31.048s
20. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m31.771s
21. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m35.053s
22. ROSBERG Williams no time

Looks a bit nip and tuck again this season then, but we're defiantly in the mix with a good shot at pole and the race.

Bring on Qualifying!!