Having just watched the final monthly Prime Ministerial press conference of 2008, I would wager that we in Britain will be seeing even less of Gordon Brown in 2009.
What struck me is how he is resolutely parroting the line that Britain's economic problems are the result of a global financial crisis.
Time and again he said that "global problems need global answers" and talked about the need for "co-ordinated global action" to resolve this country's problems. In other words, "I'm up to my neck in it and am looking for others to shoulder the blame".
Nick Watt from the Guardian pointed out in his question that during the last week Brown had visited six countries in six days and in answer to another question about the Middle East, Brown gave a long list of foreign countries he had been to recently.
I fancy he'll be taking every opportunity he can next year to escape Britain to strut his stuff on the world stage in the hope of further suggesting that our problems are not the fault of his Government and that he's somehow seeking to persuade others to act to solve them.
Also at the press conference, he failed to answer a simple question from Ben Brogan about whether he would honour Tony Blair's promise to allow David Cameron and shadow cabinet figures access to senior civil servants as of January 1st 2009, in order to discuss what a Conservative administration would want to implement. "I'll be replying in due course." he said.
