CARRIE AND A GILDED CAGE AT No.10

AND so Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds become the first unmarried couple to occupy 10 Downing Street (well, technically it’s the flat in No.11).

The fact that 92,000 of the country’s arguably most conservative people voted for Johnson to become Prime Minister shows that much of the hysteria around the move is misplaced: if it doesn’t bother the Tory faithful, the chances of it bothering the rest of the country are slim.

That said, why anyone would willingly live there if they could avoid it is beyond me.

There is something about the constant Press presence, the fact that you are surrounded at all hours of the day and night by civil servants and political aides, the way you can’t even pop out for a pint of milk without it becoming a story that makes it the ultimate gilded cage.

In the case of Boris and Carrie, there is the added psychodrama of the fact he is not yet divorced from his wife, Marina.

Even if you take the view that people’s private lives are none of anyone else’s business (and I do), Carrie’s very public arrival at No.10 makes it impossible for either her or Boris to plead for space and privacy if and when — as happened with their recent row at her flat in Camberwell — they find they need it.

Personally, I would have waited until the divorce had come through, and maybe kept a low profile at Chequers, which is not so very far away from London (not when you have police motorcycle outriders, at any rate).

The place is huge. There are no nosy neighbours with recording devices and, as far as I remember, there is an abundance of ancient leather furniture — ideal if you are at all prone to the odd red wine spillage.