It is hard to know what Gordon Brown thinks about many things, except prudence and stability (in favour) and child poverty (against). Like T.S. Eliot’s elusive ginger cat, Mr Brown has perfected the art of being absent at critical moments, particularly when tough decisions needed to be made on subjects not accommodated even within his remarkably elastic definition of the Treasury portfolio.

Foreign policy, crime and justice, the functioning of the constitution: all are subjects on which his views are much guessed but little known. On the last of these, though, kites have been flown and a broad promise made that the incoming prime minister will restore some authority to parliament to correct the tilt of power towards the executive.