Tony keeps mum on Gordon

It should be simple, really. Your best workmate - someone you see almost every day and talk to several times a day - becomes a dad for the first time.

Obviously, you pat him on the back and shake his hand, give him a celebratory drink or two, or at least ring him up. Not, however, when the father is Gordon Brown and his best buddy is Tony Blair.

Today the Prime Minister's aides simply could not - or would not - say whether the two men had exchanged a single word on the topic of fatherhood since Jennifer Jane was born, seven weeks early, last Friday.

"He has sent various messages," said a very senior source as Mr Blair's plane headed to the Indian sub-continent. "And he has had various messages back."

Jennifer remains in Forth Park Maternity Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where she was delivered, weighing 2lb 4oz, by Caesarean section following concerns during a routine scan.

Mr Brown emerged from the hospital today with his wife, Sarah, 37, who left hospital carrying red roses. He said: "We were with Jennifer for quite a lot of time this morning and she is as beautiful today as she was on the first day we saw her, and we held her in our hands.

"The next big day we are waiting for is when Jennifer can go home with us, perhaps in five or six weeks."

The coyness about any dialogue between the Blairs and the Browns follows the fuss about whether Leo Blair has or has not had the MMR vaccine and last week's attempt to keep secret the fact that the Blairs were flying to Egypt. This was somewhat undermined when Tony and Cherie were photographed smiling and waving at the Pyramids.

Mr Blair, asked if he and the Chancellor had suspended their conversations about the euro to discuss, say, Pampers, was equally uninformative. "I think, in fact I know, it is a tremendous joy to him and we have sent our warmest congratulations," he said.

Which just leaves a nation to wonder, mildly, whether it was a postcard, a fax, or a text message.