Minsters' road to nowhere

Now, more than a decade on from one of the last government's first crises, David Cameron's sense of the concerns of Middle Britain means he is desperate to avoid falling into the same trap. He is still some way from succeeding.

The help which was floated for people in rural Yorkshire looks almost as far away as ever, after Nick Clegg said discount schemes for petrol and diesel would be piloted in remote areas like the Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles and Scilly. That scheme is on such a small scale, however, and in places facing such unique transport challenges, that it will do little to help the problem of motoring costs in the rest of the country.

It is, however, being carried out in areas where there has been a high Liberal Democrat vote, while the Conservative strongholds in Yorkshire, particularly in the north of the region, are being ignored.

Given the need to shore up the dire poll ratings of Nick Clegg's party, one can see how the areas for such a trial might have been chosen.

So all those living in rural Yorkshire, particularly farmers and the owners of small businesses, will be left to carry on struggling as fuel prices inch ever higher. That appears to be the attitude in Westminster but, outside the cocooned world of Ministerial cars, taxpayer-funded taxis and free flights to millionaires' mansions, ordinary people are suffering. They need help paying transport and heating costs, just as they are trying to recover from the longest recession since the war.

The coalition Government should quickly act on the pledge by George Osborne, the Chancellor, to introduce a fuel stabiliser, which would cut the amount of petrol duty taken by the Treasury when oil prices are high. David Cameron's anxieties over the complexities of the idea come as no comfort to businesses who fear that rising costs will force them into the red. As Mr Blair would no doubt tell him, voters can quickly work out when a government is dithering. The public mood turns to anger, and it can turn very quickly.