Another slightly longer interlude in between posts. Last week was relatively busy with trips to London and Northampton, followed by a more than relatively lazy bank holiday weekend.

Today’s post will be mainly about the UK as Prime Minister Brown seems to be in hotter water than anyone ever expected, even a short while ago. However, talk of looking for an alternative leader seems like a waste of breath (or newsprint). The media have latched on to Mr Brown’s nemesis and think the public will find the story entertaining – though in point of fact it’s not that riveting. If the Prime Minister is forced out, we still have a government that has lost its impetus (and popularity) but with two more years to go before there has to be an election. So the country faces two years of marking time in politics (like the mid-nineties). No Labour politician comes to mind who will be able to re-invigorate the government any better than Gordon Brown can. Two years of batting his way through the country’s economic and fiscal problems probably won’t bring victory for Labour in 2010 but at least the country might just be in better shape than it is at the moment.

As for a cabinet reshuffle; possibly. Wasn’t the Prime Minister going to resurrect cabinet government last summer? So far the only thing we can be sure that they’re discussing is the crisis in the government’s popularity. They look so scared that fear is blocking the flow of ideas.

For the last few weeks the government’s unpopularity has been (partly) obscuring the economic problems that are its principal cause. The media’s take on the credit crunch now seems to be wallowing in all problems it’s causing people. This is not very profound and it would help if commentators could start talking more about solutions. Even big business looks as if it is just hoping for the best. Clearly, there is more to the surge in oil prices than hedge funds deciding to speculate in oil futures but the large sums of money stampeding into commodities suggests that longer term investments are losing out (among them oil exploration and oil refineries). With oil in short supply, acquiring oil exploration companies would seem like a canny investment but the important investors seem to be indicating that it’s too long term for the time being.

As for the rumours that the government might respond to increase in oil prices by delaying the increase in fuel duty and reconsidering its plan to increase road tax on older cars that aren’t fuel efficient; the government is well past the point of absurdity. Green taxes don’t seem logical in any case but surely anybody can see that taxes designed to modify spending patterns need to be introduced before people have committed themselves financially. Furthermore, while the government may be able to reverse its tax policies, this is doesn’t necessarily return the situation to the status quo as far as the poor taxpayer is concerned. At the very least the government has lost any sense of rhythm and consistency in its policies; if it doesn’t improve its performance soon there is going to be a massive breakdown in trust such as we haven’t seen since the reigns of Charles 1 or George III.

It all comes down to creating a dialogue between the politicians and the public. In the present situation it’s difficult to see what dialogue can be started. Law and order is too intractable a problem for any government probably, the government has blown its credentials for talking about fairness by the 10p tax rate fiasco and too much leniency towards ‘non-doms’. The areas I’d concentrate on (apart from basis economic and fiscal competence) would be foreign affairs – making links with the larger members of the EU stronger so the Russians can’t bully us and their smaller neighbours about energy and other matters – and energy conservation – particularly better and cheaper public transport and more effort on making all our old houses conserve heat more effectively. I'm not sure what's for the best in either of these areas but they do at least merit some kind of public debate with some hope of a practicable policy arising out of it.

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Today, I’ve been for a walk even though it’s been raining most of the day. This was a walk from Witley Common, around Rutton Hill and back via Bowlhead Green. It was very wet and the water coming off the trees was worse than the rain falling out of the sky. Everywhere was lovely and green. The rain seems to muffle the sound of traffic but during the middle section of the walk I could hear clanging, which I took to be work on the new tunnel at Hindhead.

On Saturday - the only sunny day of the weekend - we took a rowing boat out on the River Wey for an hour. Very enjoyable.