There won’t be much coverage tomorrow of the energy debate on Thursday morning: alas.

But 33 Labour MPs rebelled this afternoon to back an amendment to the Energy Bill which would have encouraged homes and companies to install renewable energy systems such as solar panels or wind turbines.

They joined the Tories and Lib Dems to back an amendment by Alan Simpson, a Labour backbencher, calling for “feed-in tariffs” - which would set a fixed longterm energy price for people who installed green energy systems.

The government is still looking at the viability of the tariffs, a key part of the Tories’ energy policy.

But Mr Simpson, talking in the Commons today, made a vivid and depressing contrast between Germany (where these exist) and the UK.

We are far, far behind on almost every measure of sustainable energy.
 
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Gordon’s tea with Thatcher last summer seems like an eternity ago.

At the time, their only common ground seemed to be that Gordo – like the Baroness – was “not for turning”.

It is hard to remember a single example of the prime minister admitting to getting anything wrong.

This morning that changed when he conceded, on the Today Programme, that he made “two mistakes” in the way he abolished the 10p income tax rate.

The PM said the policy was right but the measures did not “cover as well as we should have” the issue of low-income workers and 60-something pensioners.  

It is not hard to sense the invisible hand of an adviser, if not several, urging Brown to become more touchy-feely.

The pitfalls are obvious.

This is the man who built his political reputation on steely, stern, principled, unyielding solidity. People found his personality peculiar but liked his firm hand. That will change with each successive U-Turn.

Unlike Tony Blair, the Scotsman doesn’t do “human” too well – as Nick Robinson describes over on the Beeb blog.