There are a few politcial stories around this morning, so I thought we could have a open(ish) thread on politics.

The first is the Foil Insulation story where The Australian is outraged (outraged I tell ya) that the taxpayer is going to have to pay "$50 million bill to strip foil insulation from up to 50,000 houses or install electrical safety switches to help correct faults in the federal government's bungled $2.45 billion home insulation scheme."

The second is from the SMH which details how Tony's Great Big New Tax would cost the big companies almost as much as the ETS scheme that was so bad.

Bluescope Steel would have to pay about $19 million for carbon permits in the first year of the ETS, at an estimated price of $26 a tonne. Based on its 2008 pre-tax profits the company would face an annual bill of about $16 million under Mr Abbott's plan.

So we have those two stories for a starter, you can discuss them or any other political stories that you want to raise.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Possum reported on the latest Essential Report polling which had the government on a primary vote of 43, with the opposition on 41 (up one to the government). This gives a TPP of 54/46.