Europe is on holiday. Go to Paris and you will find half the restaurants shut. Many industries close down for weeks, and their workers flock to holiday resorts. Britain is not much different from the rest of Europe in this respect -- although British firms tend to stagger holidays more than in other European countries -- and in financial services and senior positions in industry, very long hours are being worked. British resorts are less crowded, partly because of sterling prices but mainly because Britain's summer this year has been predominantly cool, cloudy and unsettled.

The newspapers have been thin, and sometimes it seems as if the editors are struggling to find anything worthwhile to report on the home front. The Blairs have begun their annual holiday in Tuscany after a silly row with the press about the provision of a photo opportunity. In the absence of responsible leaders, the Conservative opposition has attempted to vilify Cherie Blair, declaring that she is interfering in politics because she wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph supporting the application of European human-rights rules in Britain. Why shouldn't the prime minister's wife be allowed to hold and express political opinions? She is, after all, a successful lawyer specializing in employment law. Sensibly, the Labor Party has treated this cheap, silly slander with the contempt it deserves.

If Britain is cool, Japan seems to have had record heat and typhoons. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has doubtless been feeling the political heat. The appointment of Kimitaka Kuze as head of the Financial Reconstruction Commission was a bad mistake, as Mori knew of Kuze's financial links. Hideyuki Aizawa, Kuze's successor, may be a "safe pair of hands," but at 81 he is hardly likely to be full of ideas and vigor. Once again, the response to a political crisis has been to call for help from the gerontocracy. The opposition seems powerless to dislodge Mori, who sticks to the principle that the best answer to a crisis is first, to pretend that it doesn't exist, and second, that if it does, spend lots more taxpayers' money with the aim of keeping your cronies and supporters happy.