Gordon & Sarah: The homecoming

A visitor to the small one-bedroom flat in Westminster that until recently served as the London home of Gordon and Sarah Brown was taken aback by what he saw. "Let's put it this way," said the friend, diplomatically. "Neither of them is the tidiest of people." The toys of their young son, John, were said to spread over the floor competing for the limited floor space with bags of shopping that hadn't quite made it to the kitchen.

Shuttling between Westminster and Kirkcaldy, the Browns' Fife home overlooking the Firth of Forth, the family had none of the support network a prime minister can expect. So when Brown says, as he did on Friday, that he struggles to "juggle" the demands of being a parent with those of having a busy job, he means the floor can get messy.

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Barring freakish mishap the Browns will shortly take possession of rather larger, serviced accommodation: the five-bedroom flat above 11 Downing Street that he ceded to Tony and Cherie Blair.

Although his allies have always insisted it is the office, not its perks, that he has desired, it will be a joyous homecoming. It is natural, on the eve of a such a huge shift in power, to view the coming changes through a domestic lens.

Gordon Brown's rhetoric about a humbler, less celebrity or spin-obsessed style of government will be matched against his private sphere. Already Brown has made clear that he is preparing to dispense with some of the more obvious trappings of power. It is unlikely, for instance, that he will make much use of Chequers, the Buckinghamshire country house to which British prime ministers have retreated from London with gratitude.

He let it be known that he opposed the purchase of a new executive jet for the exclusive use of senior members of the Government, but was overruled by Tony Blair with support from the Royal Family. And he refused to take delivery of his new government car - even though it was less polluting - on the grounds that his old model was still perfectly serviceable.

This prudence (or ostentatious parsimony, according to taste and prejudice) is shared by his wife. Despite her background in public relations, she is dismissive of name-droppers and can appear uncomfortable in the media spotlight.

It might as easily have been Sarah Brown as her husband who said on Friday that she did not "seek the public eye for its own sake" nor "believe that politics is about celebrity".

The contrast between Sarah Brown and Cherie Blair is intended to be as stark as that between their husbands. One cannot imagine Sarah Brown inviting a fashion editor into Downing Street, still less being photographed on the prime ministerial bed applying make-up. Sarah Brown would no more employ a lifestyle guru like Carole Caplin than agree to take a share of proceeds from a lecture tour to raise funds for children's cancer charities. Although from a younger generation than Cherie, Sarah has opted not to maintain her career alongside motherhood. Although she does some charity work, she is focused on her family. She is political (in the sense that she is tribally Labour) but avoids as a matter of unbreakable policy-making any sort of individual intervention on any subject.

The couple have a part-time nanny: a long-serving and trusted young Finn named Hannah who serves the family full time is currently on an extended holiday. Given the number of functions both attend, the employment is almost obligatory.

When he worried publicly about the consequences of the highest office on his children this weekend it risked a charge familiar to all politicians with families: that they cynically exploit them. No matter how many private family occasions to which the media are not admitted access, the merest mention of parenthood can provoke it.

The christening of their second son, Fraser, earlier this year passed off unreported despite being a fairly large event in Kirkcaldy to which many of the Browns' friends were invited. Nor can critics claim that Brown has sought to use the fact that the child has cystic fibrosis for political advantage since he has barely spoken on the subject since the diagnosis was first revealed.

But for all the discretion, the nexus between the personal and political can be toxic. When he cried during a television interview last October while talking about the death of his daughter, Jennifer, after just 10 days in 2002 one enemy claimed the tears were induced with the aid of a concealed pin. That claim - surely a poisonous falsehood - is a taste of what lies ahead for the family.

Brown's chosen political style seeks to blend normality and humility. It was neatly summarised by a (Blairite) senior campaign manager as he described the focus of Labour's message in the the Holyrood elections: "Come home to a real fire." Warm and real: the former US president Bill Clinton said Brown's authenticity could "carry its own charisma".

Like an Abrahamic figure leading his people out of a desert with his "moral compass", Brown's message was one of service. "I will lead a government humble enough to know its place - where I will always strive to be on people's side." It is, of course, an approach that is as premeditated as the power chords of "Cool Britannia" that opened the Blair gig - and has the same potential to unravel in an embarrassing tangle with reality.

Brown's aides like to joke that "no spin is the new spin". But smaller presentational errors than the improperly placed autocues that obscured Brown's face at his launch have done for lesser politicians. Brown knows that he cannot afford "bad spin to be the new spin".

The incredible claim that Brown's favourite band was the Arctic Monkeys (he loves classical music) has been ridiculed by the Tories ever since he made it. And David Cameron's incredible chutzpah in staging publicity coups could tip opinion on Brown's appeal from the reassuringly homespun to the depressingly drab. Cameron's latest stunt - staying the night with a British Asian family in Birmingham and filing a despatch to his website - might strike some voters as cynical and shallow.

Important though the personal and the presentational are, both depend on the success or failure of Brown's policies. The outlines of some aspects of Brown's manifesto for Britain are sketched in more details elsewhere on these pages. A review of policy in Iraq topped the headlines the day after his launch for good reason: Brown faces no more important task than how to deal with that terrible legacy bequeathed him. His strategy is to acknowledge that mistakes have been made (without defining exactly what they were) and to offer the prospect of a demilitarised presence in Iraq. He will shortly embark on another tour of British military operations and can presumably avoid making substantial pronouncements until he is safely installed in No 10.

The three-year Whitehall spending settlements due this autumn will provide the ideal opportunity for the new prime minister to recast Britain's defence policy. The military and the intelligence services are unlikely to be among the major losers of the comprehensive spending round given the threats faced at home and abroad from al-Qa'ida and its fellow travellers.

But Brown signalled a major shift in emphasis towards the "battle for hearts and minds". Allies say his long-standing interest in how to foster a sense of "shared British values" has chimed with the urgent need to draw young British Muslims back from radicalisation.

"I want to build a national consensus for a programme of constitutional reform," he said at his launch, acknowledging that Blair's "war on terror" had eroded civil liberties. He wanted to make sure, he said that that the "hard-won liberties of the individual ... are at all times upheld without relenting in our attack on terrorism".

On the domestic front, Brown looks certain to disappoint the Tory strategists who want to portray him as abandoning Blairite public service reforms. He has made his peace with Blair's academy schools programme as well as proposals to allow private firms to compete with the public sector to provide state-funded health care in some inner-city areas.

In fact, far from abandoning the centre, Brown served notice of his intention to fight Cameron on his own ground. In an echo of the Tory leader's rhetoric as well as his core message, he said he was "optimistic" about Britain because he saw the "driving power of social conscience at work - men and women who believe in something bigger than themselves". His announcement - reported in today's Independent on Sunday - of plans to build five new "eco-towns" on brownfield sites seeks both to neutralise Cameron's green appeal and to drive a wedge between him and Tory voters who object to new housing developments.

As a piece of political strategy it is clever stuff. But then Brown has been thinking about this campaign for a long time, perhaps even since before he stepped aside for Tony Blair in 1994. He makes no apology for pulling out all the stops to win an election in which he is the only credible candidate. He knows that the media, faced with a one-horse race, will begin to drift away.

So this is his golden opportunity to introduce himself to the British people as their prime minister. Humble, authentic, moral, untainted by sleaze, unimpressed by celebrity and determined to lead the country away from the disaster of Iraq without shamefully abandoning that country.

This is the "new Gordon" that has been kept under wraps during Blair's long goodbye. The press notices have been broadly favourable so far. Now, what do the punters think?

Gordon Brown's in-tray

Iraq

Gordon Brown must pull off the almost impossible trick of convincing voters that he has an "exit strategy" from Iraq, while assuring them that we will not simply "cut and run" from that country. The outline of his solution was sketched yesterday in the form of two two-word phrases. The first is "political reconciliation" and the second "economic development".

In stressing both dialogue and consultation with the Iraqi government, Brown offers a war-wearied electorate at least the prospect of de-militarisation.

Terrorism

As with Iraq, Brown's policy on terrorism seems to be to lay a renewed emphasis on non-military, so-called "soft power" options. Blair has stopped using the phrase "war on terror" but Brown hopes that he can escape his predecessor's legacy sufficiently to credibly launch a "hearts and minds" campaign. Asserting a set of British values will be a unifying theme of the Queen's Speech.

Education

In an overlooked passage of Brown's campaign launch speech on Friday, he said that he would continue to "implement the important structural changes" in schools. It is now clear that as Prime Minister he will not seek to undo or even slow the pace of the academy and trust school programme, dealing a blow to David Cameron's hopes of portraying him as a "roadblock to reform". Brown's big idea for education appears to be an extension of individual learning plans for each pupil.

Health

Although education was described by Brown in his launch speech as "my passion", the National Health Service achieved only the status of "a priority". He refused to rule out the extension of private-sector provision of state-funded health care, even using the word "contestability" - Blairite code for competition between private firms and the public sector for patients. However, he hinted that some local hospitals threatened with closure may be reprieved, something that will plunge Patricia Hewitt into yet deeper gloom.

Reform of Government

There will be a new ministerial code of conduct, new powers of scrutiny for MPs and the guarantee of a vote in the House of Commons and the prospect of some form of constitutional convention to codify "the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Britain today". The link with counter-terrorism efforts will be explicit as Brown tries to rebalance civil liberties in an age of suicide bombers.

Climate Change

Although Brown didn't say much on the subject at his campaign launch, he identifies it as among the greatest challenges facing Britain today. He knows he allowed Cameron to steal the agenda and that he will have to wrest it back, but has chosen not to focus attention on an area that - at present - shows his enemy in a better light than himself.

Housing And Quality Of Life Issues

The early campaign has emphasised the provision of affordable housing - a key political battleground. The shortage of supply drives up house prices, fuels inflation and prices the lower-paid out of home ownership. The Tories were stealing a march on Labour in this area and Brown is determined to close the gap. He also spoke of the quality of childhood, another Tory theme.

The Browns & the Blairs Who's in & who's out

The Spinner

In: Damian McBride

Out: Tom Kelly

Damian McBride, 32, a Cambridge-educated former civil servant, has emerged as Brown's principle spokesman and is presumed to be heading for a role in communications at No 10, where Tom Kelly has been Tony Blair's official spokesman.

The Ally

In: Ed Balls

Out: Peter Mandelson

Ed Balls, 40, was an exact Oxford contemporary of David Cameron. He has been a key ally of Brown's. He is a certainty for cabinet promotion but will hope to avoid the fate of Blair's loyal cabinet ally, Peter Mandelson.

The Bagman

In: Ian Austin

Out: Keith Hill

Ian Austin, 42, was made Brown's media special adviser after Charlie Whelan proved a little too, er, aggressive. Austin was rewarded with a safe seat and position as one of Brown's two parliamentary private secretaries, a role performed for Blair by Keith Hill.

The Gatekeeper

In: Sue Nye

Out: Anji Hunter

Go to a party or an event at which Brown is expected, and Sue Nye, 52, will be there. Part of a triumvirate of women around him ,Nye is Brown's "body person", ie, she chooses his ties and tells him to tuck his shirt in, a job performed for Blair by Anji Hunter.

The Enforcer

In: Shriti Vadera

Out: Geoff Norris

Shriti Vadera is known to detractors as 'the Shriek'. Brown brought her in from the City to help on talks with Ken Livingstone over London Underground. She will probably perform the same role for the new Prime Minister as Geoff Norris did for Blair.

The Strategist

In: Spencer Livermore

Out: John McTernan

Spencer Livermore, 32, recently featured in The Independent on Sunday's Pink List of influential gay people. He is Brown's chief political adviser and has a good chance of being made political secretary, a job held by John McTernan.

The Loyalist

In: Alistair Darling

Out: Tessa Jowell

Alistair Darling has a quiet discretion and intelligence that has kept him safely in high office when other allies of the Chancellor were being purged by a vengeful Blair. Tessa Jowell combined a similar role of being both friend and ally to Blair.

The Friend

In: Murray Elder

Out: Charlie Falconer

The hard-wiring that roots Brown into the tradition of Scottish Labour politics flows through Murray Elder, the former chief of staff to John Smith.There is no direct counterpart in Blair's circle but Charlie Falconer comes closest.