Even to the end, the chancellor was in the hands of the man who pipped him to the Labour leadership 13 years ago. But from next Wednesday, he will finally be the master of his own fate, and the roles of the two men who have dominated British politics since 1997 will be reversed.

It will be Blair's turn to sit on the sidelines.

Whatever Blair's feelings about handing over to Brown . . . and he has said remarkably little so far . . . in private some prominent Blairites are anxious. They fear Brown will try to woo voters by distancing himself from the Blair decade, repeating the mistake of Al Gore, Democratic candidate at the 2000 US election, who distanced himself from Bill Clinton and ended up, as he styles himself, "the former next president of the US".

"There is a danger that Gordon will fight the last war to show how he would have done things differently, " says a Blairite minister. "Most voters won't care. He's got to tell them what he'll do for them in the future."

The Brownites insist their man has no intention of "doing a Gore". They point out he has been an integral part of the Blair government and has embraced reforms such as "personalised" public services and city academy schools.

So what can we expect from the early weeks of his government? I doubt he will try to repeat his 1997 trick by making a "big bang" announcement like granting independence to the Bank of England. If he did that, he believes, people would remember only one thing.

Instead, he will make his position clear on big issues such as health, education and foreign affairs. On other issues, such as constitutional reform, he will outline some ideas but consult widely before reaching final decisions.

What will be different from the Blair era will be his style. He believes the public has tired of "President Blair", so he will create a cabinet with some new, younger faces and let his ministers get on with it.

He will cut the number of advisers in No 10 and beef up the number of civil servants in the cabinet office, symbolising the return of cabinet government.

Blairites dismiss this as "a piece of spin". Blair allies point out that the cabinet office has a connecting door to No 10 and that some of its officials have worked closely with Brown in the Treasury.

"A prime minister's department in all but name is being created at the cabinet office, " claim the Blairites, to which Brownites reply: "We have had one of those inside No 10 for years."

Perhaps Blair allies fret too much.

Last week Brown showed he is capable of being more Blairite than Blair. His surprise offer of ministerial posts to the Liberal Democrats . . . and to make Paddy Ashdown his Northern Ireland Secretary . . . was highly significant, especially as Brown was sceptical (to put it politely) when Blair tried to woo Ashdown ahead of the 1997 election.

Although the Liberal Democrats suspect the move was a Brown trap, it appears to have been a genuine offer of partnership. Brown wanted to make a splash by including Liberal Democrats in the ministerial team he will announce on Wednesday and Thursday. Even though the Liberal Democrats spurned his offer, he will still include a few nonLabour figures and appoint several independent experts as advisers.

In part, the offer to Menzies Campbell was an insurance policy against a hung parliament: if any Liberal Democrats were already serving in a Labour government, their party would be unlikely to jump into bed with the Conservatives.

I suspect Brown's other aim was to push the Tories off the political centre ground, where David Cameron has planted his tent. Tony had a "big tent" but Gordon wants to build an even bigger one.

Campbell's handling of Brown's approach fuelled criticism from his own party, where some described him as "an old man in a hurry" to get a cabinet seat.

Allies insist some good came of the crisis, as it made his fuzzy line on cooperating with other parties clearer and awakened him to the danger of the Tories saying: 'Vote Campbell, Get Brown' at the next election. But Campbell is on notice:

any more flirting with Labour and he will be in deep trouble in his own party.

So all bets on a Lib-Lab deal are off . . .for now. What happens after the next election is an entirely different matter.