On a normal working day, our local high street is busy. Two lanes of cars jostling for position between parked vehicles and the intermittent movement of buses. Pedestrians bringing the whole thing to a temporary halt on crossings, shoppers carrying heaps of plastic bags, queuing at ATM's, or simply standing around at bus stops for the next smoke belching leviathan to appear.

On a Sunday, the same street is empty. A few moslems walking to their local mosque but otherwise you wouldn't know the street was used. What's worse is the number of shops and businesses closed for business. I can see at least two more, whitewashed windows and 'To Let' signs proliferating.

There's two trains of thought on this issue. On the one hand the governmnt keep telling us that the recovery is going to happen next year, whilst other financial experts tell us it's going be worse than we think. I don't have to think aout about - I can see how well business is doing in Swindon. On the plus side the recent announcement of the railway electrification program means that Swindons economy will receive a boost. I suppose that's a good thing, but will that provide any lasting effect? After ll, as I've discovered myself recently, shrinking incomes and rising prices mean that fewer people can afford train tickets. Unless, of course, you want to ride the 'gravy-train'.

You would think that the news coverage of recent scandals would deter such fraud and deceit, but no, it gets worse, as we discover one Minister of Parliament secured a home for her daughter at public expense. I suspect though that her fortunes have just suffered a downturn too.

On the Plus Side of the Week

The future of Coate Water has been in doubt. It's a reservoir built to service the canals of the eighteenth century and now serves as a local beauty spot and nature reserve. Developers however anted to build a university campus next door and homes on the farmland between the lake and the M4 motorway.

I viewed that prospect with dread. Coate Water has a peaceful air about it due to it's position on the edge of town, but once enveloped by housing estates you can imagine the wrack and ruin that will befall it. Thankfully the enquiry over Coate Waters future has decided that the housing development will not go ahead. Phew. There is of course Swindons much debated eastern development still to go ahead and that will get us through the dowbnturn with jobs for builders and so forth.

There is something I don't get though. It's all very well claiming that building new houses will get us through the bad times (a common government mantra) but how does that benefit me? What I know about building houses can be written on the head of a six inch nail, and affording one of those new shoebox properties isn't possible. Does having hundreds of new houses automatically generate new jobs for their occiupants? Seems a bit unlikely.

And when the builders have finished, what then? Do they go through a downturn too? Or shall we expect another attempt to develope the area around Coate Water at a later date?