To judge from the media coverage of recent weeks, you would think it was Sarah Brown rather than her buttoned-down husband facing a general election by spring next year.

The prime minister’s once low-key spouse is everywhere – refusing veal at the Group of Eight summit, meeting the Pope and Paris Hilton, changing outfits three times in a day, cooking lasagne for the cabinet, guest-editing a magazine, going on a Gay Pride march, wearing WaterAid wellies at Glastonbury while wandering around with Naomi Campbell.