Should a PM's spouse remain silent?

Analysis
By Nick Assinder
Political Correspondent, BBC News website

It may not be fair and it may not be "modern".

Cherie was asking for trouble

But any prime minister's spouse who chooses to go public on a political or sensitive issue is asking for trouble.

And Cherie Blair must know that more than most. After all, this is not the first time she has been at the wrong end of newspaper headlines for her remarks.

Her latest comments have already been interpreted as revealing a division between her and her husband over laws to deal with terrorists.

Yet she was speaking in her professional capacity as a highly-respected QC and, it is argued, has every right to pursue her career to the fullest extent.

The fact that she is the wife of the British prime minister is neither her nor there, it is argued.

First lady

Her comments were also well within the range of political and legal debate currently being carried on between the political leaders and parties in Westminster. Nothing sensational.

The prime minister has understandably played them down, declaring his wife only said the same things, about balancing civil liberties with protecting the public, as he had done.

Role of prime minister's spouse is ill defined

Most MPs know there is an issue here and one that is unlikely to simply go away. Future prime ministers are just as likely to have spouses with prominent, successful careers and who are asked to speak at formal functions.

But the question is whether Cherie Booth QC and Cherie Blair, first lady of Downing Street as her US publicity would have it, can be completely separated.

And, of course, it is impossible to be sure whether she receives invitations purely because of her job or sometimes - as certainly seemed the case during a recent US trip - because she is the PM's wife.

It is a problem which has never really arisen before.

Neither Audrey Callaghan or Mary Wilson overtly strayed into political territory.

Even privately they were careful to ensure they did not speak out on sensitive issues when there was any chance of their comments being reported.

Never there

And Norma Major's profile was so low as to be virtually off the media radar altogether.

She loved opera, and wrote books about it, but, it was said, disliked the political lifestyle.

Denis summed it up best

And before them it was not an issue. Wives - because they all were wives, of course - simply did not have a profile.

Denis Thatcher probably summed up the role of the ideal spouse best when he described himself as "always present, never there".

In other words, always on hand to offer support and private advice, but never a partner who would attract embarrassing headlines or stray into political territory.

Like Cherie Booth, he was a professional person with an active business life of his own. But he knew his place.

And that is the problem. Is it any longer right that prime minister's spouses, particularly women, should be expected to "know their place"?