Sarah Brown is never to be referred to as this country’s “first lady”. Were we to have that term in English usage, it would refer to Her Majesty the Queen. Mrs Brown is merely the wife of the Prime Minister.
Simon Heffer
Associate Editor
The Daily Telegraph
» Memo to the journalists of the Telegraph on 23 August 2009, about how to refer to the wife of Gordon Brown, then British prime minister
A Prime Minister's wife is just like any other common people, just that she is married to a Prime Minister who is elected to serve the public, that is a public servant. She is not an elected representative hence she has no business whatsoever to be involved in running the country or the power to utilised the public funds.
If an employee's wife is called the "first lady", what should we call the wife of the employer? "First first lady"?
The wife of the PM is only entitled the courtesy by virtue of being his spouse and nothing more. She has no standing officially.
So, Mr. Prime Minister, order the closure of this "First Lady" issue by declaring that your wife is just your wife and nobody's "First Lady" but if you need to treat her as "First Lady", do so when you are back home and not during your working hours serving the public.
Well said, I heartily agree and so do a lot of people I talked to.
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