Whenever Gordon Brown talks about long-term, global challenges, he is well informed, impressive and persuasive, the personification of hyperactive Davos man. He knows and talks to everyone who matters. His phone is always busy. Electoral politics, however, is short-term and local. With less than two years before polling day, Mr Brown does not have the time to be proved right in the long term.

This contrast also explains one of Mr Brown's central weaknesses: his difficulty in translating his shrewd sense of global challenges into politically saleable policies. Something goes wrong in between. He is almost too aware of the pitfalls of any course of action, and overcautious, often producing confused policies. So even when Mr Brown is being bold, and thinking long term, it does not look that way. Paradoxically, his activity, even hyperactivity, can appear like action for its own sake, blurring his long-term message.

That dilemma has been highlighted by his response to the problem of sharply rising fuel and food prices. He is correct that these are ultimately global problems requiring global solutions. It is fair enough for Mr Brown to go to Saudi Arabia and talk to the oil producers, but Sunday's summit is unlikely to make any difference to prices in the short term. The risk is that Mr Brown looks ineffective.

He has offered a diversification bargain to oil-producing states. Britain and other oil-consuming states would open up to new investment by producers in renewables, nuclear and other forms of energy. In return, oil producers would accept increased funding and expertise from foreign investors in oil exploration and development. There are very long time-lags here, which is why the Government wants to shorten the planning process via the Bill before the Commons today, but big questions remain about the subsidies needed, for example, to finance wind power.

However correct this strategy is, there will be no concrete results by the next election and the political pressures are immediate, as has been seen in the angry fuel protests throughout Europe. Last week's EU summit highlighted the conflict between populists keen to cut prices and long-termers concerned with energy efficiency and climate change. There have been similar tensions over food prices, with protectionist views emerging from France and from the Democratic presidential campaign in the US.

All Mr Brown can offer is partial help, via the rise in the winter fuel allowance, extra money for loft insulation and the deal with utility companies to help low-income households, plus some of last month's £2.7 billion income tax cut.

In the short term, however, there is no alternative to British consumers absorbing much of these higher prices. Trying to compensate for higher costs through either subsidies or increased pay demands, as in the 1970s, is a quick route to rises in both inflation and unemployment, as Mr Brown and Alistair Darling rightly argue in resisting union demands. But being right in the long term will not win votes in the short term, the tragic irony of Mr Brown's premiership.

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