Last weekend Brown did an "emotional" TV interview session which would certainly indicate that he considers his personal and private life to be the most important issue of the day.

So, despite the fact that the economic "recovery" turns out to be nothing but a new wave of job cuts for the working class, along with price hikes and wage cuts; despite the fact that Brown's government is in the middle of an escalating war in Afghanistan, he sees fit to talk about... buying his wife's engagement ring.

Of course it remains to be seen how much this is going to impress the electorate at whom this tasteless show business was directed.

Because there are serious major issues. All governments which bailed out the banks are now trying to pass the cost onto their populations - and for the poorer EU countries it means a possible social crisis - like in Greece today. Britain is just as indebted as the poorer EU countries, if not more, thanks to Brown's generosity to the rich, and it is only thanks to Britain's large economy that it is not (yet) officially bankrupt...

But things aren't looking up at all. Official inflation is now 3.7% - 1% more than Darling predicted. And while prices are on the up, credit for ordinary people is even more expensive - with credit cards now charging the highest interest rates in 12 years - on average 18.8%!

As for the ongoing crisis of unemployment, 1,600 workers at Teeside's Corus steel plant were told just yesterday that Friday would be the last day of steel production. What other jobs are on offer for them, when, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, firms in all sectors plan to cut 6.2% of their workforce in the first 3 months of 2010 (almost double the number cut last year at the same time)? And it's worse in the public sector: one in three public sector employers is planning to shed jobs this quarter.

What is more, the "sacrosanct" NHS is being targeted. In London, a leaked report tells of cuts of a third of all hospital beds and 6 A&E departments. How many jobs does that alone represent, not to mention the danger to the population's health!

The recession is hitting workers now - but all the government and the major parties' politicians are bothered about is the coming general election. We can only feel in solidarity with those striking workers in Greece who were out in the streets in pig masks with the slogan "the PIGS strike back". They feel all the peoples of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain should get together and refuse to pay for the crisis! They are right. But for the working class of Europe (indeed the whole world), dividing us into "pig" and "non-pig" countries makes no sense - because we all have the same interest: to get rid of the capitalist pigs' profit system - and together, we could do it. That would give Brown et al something major to cry about.

Thanks to Brown and the other Western leaders, those whose floors are not collapsing under their feet due to the crisis, have missiles and bombs falling on them from the sky, due to war.

Just 3 days into the latest Afghan offensive, so called "Operation Moshtarak" (which means "together" in Dari), Western forces "boasted" of having killed 35 "enemy fighters". Then it turned out that 12 of these people were members of one family in whose courtyard a missile had landed by mistake.

Reports came out at the same time of another 5 ordinary family members who were killed "by mistake" further south, in Kandahar.

We are told that this latest operation in Helmand province is supposed to win hearts and minds and finally, to take the province out of the hands of the so-called "Taliban". Never mind that the "Taliban" are mostly just locals opposed both to the Western invaders and Karzai's Western-backed government.

There have been several "major offensives" in Helmand province and they have all failed, because the insurgents were quick to "melt away" into the neighbouring areas. There is no reason to think that it will not be the same today.

As to the claim that this latest operation is aimed at building schools and hospitals - one can only wonder what the British troops must have been doing in Helmand since they took control from the US military in 2006, since this was the stated reason for the takeover. Four years on there is little or nothing to show for it. Why should it be any different this time - or even 4 years from now?