With the advent of multi-channel TV the publishers need to find something to fill these channels. So today on BBC Parliament we have live coverage of the Labour Party Conference, complete and unedited. From the little I saw this morning this message hadn’t got through to the MP Keith Vaz who was chairing a Q&A session. As they were setting up he was explaining how things were going to work to his panel of MPs: “Don’t speak until I call your name. Pretend it’s like the old cabinet”…

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Today the FIA have released details of why they came to the decision to fine McLaren a record $100M in the Ferrari spy scandal. I did wonder yesterday if McLaren might appeal but seeing the evidence I don’t think they should bother and think themselves lucky that they weren’t kicked out for 2007 & 08. I also shows that Mike Coughlan was lying spectacularly to save his skin and lessen the damage inflicted on his former employer. Coughlan stated that he had only four contacts with Ferrari’s Nigel Stepney. It has become clear that there were in fact at least 35 mobile calls and 288 text messages and that an incredible amount of detail was passed. What is ironic about this is that McLaren title sponsor Vodafone produced the information to prove this had been the case.

I dislike Ferrari for how they go about racing but on this occasion I can only side with them and think that they should rightly feel hard done by and that McLaren have got off lightly.

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So the FIA have decided. McLaren are guilty and it’s going to cost them $100M and all their points docked from the 2007 constructors championship. In some senses it could have been worse. Earlier this afternoon Autosport.com were reporting that McLaren were going to be kick out of the 2008 championship too.

The interesting thing is that the points are only being stripped from the constructor and not the drivers. Surely is McLaren got some advantage from the information obtained from Ferrari then the drivers have gain because of this and not just the team.

If one was being cynical about this you might think that the drivers championship is close this year and could well still be decided at the last race. Would you want to take away that excitement and effectively kill off this season’s championship? Probably not. But it does seem to be a bit of a fudge as so often these decisions from the FIA are.

And of course still it could linger on if McLaren decide to appeal, which surely they must if they believe that they are innocent. This, however, just drags it out even more and make it such a bad news story for F1. I have a good friend who is into cycling and I also revel in the drug stories that taint the Tour each year – this is on the same level. Let’s hope it stops here.

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