Inside Downing Street a private secretary has been briefing civil servants in recent days on what to expect of Gordon Brown when he arrives this week as prime minister.

He likes submissions written in large type, they were told. Brown, who lost the sight in one eye as a youth, now struggles with small print. He uses a normal computer, but displays the results on an extra large screen on the wall.

Officials were also told to address him as plain “Gordon”, not prime minister. Be concise, said the private secretary. And fear not if you find him prowling the corridors at odd hours.

“Don’t be surprised if you see him pottering around at 6am,” said the insider. “He’s probably heading to the gym for his usual half-hour work-out. In fact, it’s a good opportunity to have a chat with him about an issue.”

Remarkably, though, physical preparations for the most important handover of political power in Britain for 10 years have been limited. Sue Nye, Brown’s gatekeeper, has been in to look around the No 10 offices, but the chancellor’s team have not pressed for access. They don’t want to “rub it in” that at long last Blair is giving way to Brown.

Though Brown is not suddenly going to veer off in a new political direction, many things will be different. New faces will appear in the cabinet; the way Downing Street and Whitehall are run will radically change; and “cronyism”, sleaze and spin will end. Or that, at least, is the spin coming from the Brown camp.

Instead Brown has promised a government of “all talents” and has already started to put up an even bigger “big tent” – to woo outsiders and opponents – than the one originally espoused by Blair.

The tent seems fitting on the weekend of the Glastonbury festival, and has already proved as muddy. Last week Brown invited Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, to join his government as Northern Ireland secretary. Though Ashdown rejected the offer, the move left David Cameron’s Tories, who have made their own approaches to the Lib Dems, reeling.

Brown also offered a ministerial post, outside the cabinet, to Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner. Stevens, regarded as right of centre, also turned it down.

However, new faces that are expected to appear around Brown’s cabinet table include James Purnell and Ed Miliband, both 37, former highly regarded special advisers – to Blair and Brown respectively – now junior ministers.

David Miliband, older brother of Ed and the current environment secretary, will also feature. The question is whether Brown would trust him with a heavyweight cabinet post, given that he was once mooted as a rival for the leadership. Miliband joked last week that he was late for a parliamentary appointment because he had to “cross the floods of tears that are now trailing down Downing Street” because of Blair’s departure.

It will be the first time two siblings have sat in cabinet since 1929 when Austen and Neville Chamberlain, half-brothers, served in a Conservative government. Neville, the younger of the two, went on to become prime minister.

Brown may also deliver the first married couple in cabinet if he finds a place for Yvette Cooper to join the top team alongside her husband Ed Balls, who is certain to have a key role.

A big shake-up in Whitehall is promised, with new “themed” ministries, such as a possible Department for Infra-structure, taking in transport and housing, and an enterprise department, merging parts of culture and trade and industry.

The Brown camp promises that civil servants, not special advisers, will rule, with the number of spin doctors being cut down. “When Gordon talks about changing the culture and restoring cabinet government, he means it,” said one Brown ally.

All this throws open the question: has Brown, once described by Blair as a “big clunking fist”, really decided to turn collegiate and embrace all talent? Or is it just his version of “Tony’s cronies”?

How inclusive is the famously irascible and buttoned-up Brown really going to be? THE approach to the Lib Dems seemed to come out of the blue. Though there are suggestions of secret talks over several weeks between Alistair Darling, a close Brown ally tipped to be the next chancellor, and Lord Kirkwood, a close aide of the Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies “Ming” Campbell, the first concrete proposals happened on Monday.

Brown invited Campbell for a meeting at his Commons office and told him he wanted to offer four Lib Dem peers – Ashdown, Baroness Neuberger, Lord Lester and Lord Carlile – jobs in his government. Brown sought an agreement in principle that this was acceptable.

“Give me 24 hours,” Campbell replied. He needed to consult his advisers but, after discussing it with Ed Davey, his chief of staff, and Kirkwood, he decided to reject the offer.

As one senior Lib Dem said on Friday: “Brown’s offer was a total surprise to us. He totally sprung it on us. Ming didn’t say no immediately because he wanted to talk to his people about it, but it was decided after about two minutes to reject the offer.

“We are being wooed by Brown as well as the Tories now, but on all sorts of issues we are at odds with the government. What would a Lib Dem minister do if we as a party decided to vote against the government?”

Brown persisted, leaving a pink note in Ashdown’s pigeonhole at Westminster asking him to call. The respected peer, who performed a number of diplomatic tasks for Blair, including high representative to Bosnia, was curious. But, after a short meeting with Campbell, he was told that there would be no Lib Dems getting into bed with Brown.

Press reports of Brown’s attemp t to woo the Lib D e m s appeared on Wednesday, infuriating party activists and forcing Campbell to declare publicly that no Lib Dems would be joining the government.

Ashdown, who had already agreed to meet Brown that afternoon, phoned Brown’s office. “I presume our meeting is off?” he asked; but was told that Brown still wanted to see him. He assumed it must be for a lesser project.

Arriving at the Treasury for his meeting with Brown, he was surprised to be offered the possibility of Northern Ireland secretary. He turned it down, saying he had been taught always to follow his commanding officer.

But would Ashdown have accepted a more senior role, say foreign secretary? And why did Brown persist with meeting Ashdown, despite Campbell’s strictures? Was it simply confusion or clever politicking?

Political analysts see both short and long-term motivations behind Brown’s overture to the Lib Dems. “In terms of its immediate impact, you could see this as a master-stroke,” said Professor Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University’s elections centre. “It points up the Lib Dems as ditherers, who will always be in opposition.”

But Brown is also looking to the next general election and beyond, echoing Blair’s fear of 10 years ago that he would not win enough seats for an outright Commons majority. He might need Liberal Democrat help to beat Cameron’s Tories.

“He wants to continue the realignment of British politics,” Thrasher said. “He probably knows that if the Tories don’t win the next election they’ll win the one after that. This could be about preventing that.”

Whether cockup or clever strategy, last week Brown’s camp was adamant that it was the Lib Dems who leaked news of the meetings. Brownites were claiming the fallout as a win, saying Brown had demonstrated he was opening up his big tent flaps.

If others like Ashdown “choose to put party politics above the national interest”, that is just “unfortunate”.

In a further move to ditch Brown’s reputation as a “Stalinist” – as the former cabinet secretary Lord Turnbull once dubbed him – the incoming prime minister is planning a low-key arrival at No 10. There will be no triumphalist rally, in deliberate contrast to the arrival of Blair a decade ago.

“We don’t want Gordon’s arrival to be reminiscent of Blair’s in 1997. We don’t want bells and whistles,” said a Brown ally. “Gordon’s quiet, dignified arrival will make it clear that there is going to be a change of style.”

At midday on Wednesday, Blair will put on his “lucky” Church’s brogues, which have been with him throughout his tenure as Labour leader (resoled only once), and take his last prime minister’s questions in the Commons. A friendly and loyal backbencher will be prompted to ask “what achievements he feels he has made over the past 10 years”. Blair will be in his element, perhaps mindful of Lady Thatcher, who declared during one of her last Commons appearances: “I’m enjoying this!”

Blair will return to No 10 for a farewell lunch. About 2pm he and Cherie will emerge, get into their Jaguar and head for Buckingham Palace for a short audience with the Queen. From there he will be driven to Chequers, where the family has been allowed to stay until their £3m home in Connaught Square, west London, is ready.

The era of Blair, the longest continually serving prime minister Labour has had, will have come to a close. BROWN will head back to the Treasury and say his farewells to his officials and loyal staff. No doubt a crowd of wellwishers will “spontaneously” form to cheer him from the balcony of the atrium, as they did when he returned after the 2005 general election.

There he will await the call to the palace to receive the seals of office from the Queen. In keeping with tradition, Brown has asked for Blair’s private secretary to accompany him to No 10 where he will be greeted by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary. O’Donnell is one of the key “technocrats”. A former Treasury permanent secretary who knows Brown well, he has been quietly preparing the ground for the transition for more than a year.

The other key adviser will be Jeremy Heywood, a City banker and former principal private secretary to Blair. He is to be given the rank of permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office to enable him to push through Brown’s policy changes. Heywood’s former role with Blair has caused some raised eyebrows among Brownites; but he has forged a strong relationship with Balls, the chancellor’s key lieutenant over the years. One insider said: “Ed was the one who said to Gordon: forget his affiliation to Blair and that he has become a Treasury hate figure, he is someone who can deliver.”

Another source in the Brown camp said: “Effectively the two of them, Balls and Heywood, sorted out everything, including public spending rounds. At times those two kept the show on the road. Ed knows Jeremy’s merits better than anyone else among the Brownites.”

Other notable enforcers will be the chancellor’s “gate-keeper” Sue Nye, the wife of Gavyn Davies, the former Goldman Sachs partner and BBC chairman; Spencer Livermore, the former head of Labour’s “attack unit”; and Patrick Loughran, another bright spark from the party’s “dirty tricks” operation.

Despite the presence of Livermore and Loughran, Brown is at least making a show of disbanding the No 10 spin machine. He has appointed Michael Ellam, a career civil servant and head of communications at the Treasury from 2000-03, to be the prime minister’s official spokesman. Ellam is extremely close to both Brown and Balls.

On the political side, the number of “spin doctors” in No 10 will be cut from eight to just one: Damian McBride, known as “McPoison” to his friends. The karaoke and lager-loving adviser is one of the most influential players in the Brown regime.

Like many of the inner circle, McBride is an avid football fan. “You don’t get much out of Damian when Arsenal are playing at home, even when Gordon calls,” one friend said.

The Downing Street press office will be symbolically moved as well. It will be banished to the Cabinet Office, the heart of the civil service, round the corner at 70 Whitehall, along with the rest of Brown’s policy unit.

This is intended to be a big break with spin: after the 2001 election, Alastair Campbell shifted out the whips, the government business managers, from their home in No 12 Downing Street and installed his press office there. The return of the chief whip to his or her rightful abode could signal the comeback of Nick Brown, a key ally of Brown’s, or possibly Geoff Hoon, the Europe minister.

The Browns have yet to decide whether to move from their current flat above No 10 to the flat above No 11, which is bigger and was commandeered by Blair for his family. “It depends on who is appointed chancellor,” said a Brown aide. “And how big their family is.”

Chief candidate for that role is Darling. For the Home Office it is Jack Straw, who feels he has “unfinished business” at that department after his successor David Blunkett criticised his approach. But, according to well-informed sources, the final choices will depend on the deputy leadership election.

Voting in the election – which involves MPs, individual party members and unions – closed on Friday, and the result will be announced today. Yesterday the Westminster grapevine was suggesting the winner would be either Alan Johnson or Hilary Benn. Brown could work with either; his nightmare would be a victory for Jon Cruddas, the leftwinger.

After factoring in the new deputy leader, Brown will finalise his cabinet reshuffle on Monday and Tuesday. He must appoint, too, a new attorney-general after Lord Goldsmith resigned on Friday night. Harriet Harman is a candidate if she does not win the contest for deputy leader. Mike O’Brien is another possibility.

Today Brown will hold a big party in Manchester to thank his campaign team and constituency staff. Finally his long journey is over. He’s had his briefings from MI6 and MI5. He knows the codes for firing Britain’s nuclear deterrent and the location of our nuclear submarines.

Now he has to point his intellectual weapons at his opponents – the Tories – and at the country’s problems. The list of pressing issues is a long one.

It includes the aftermath of the European Union summit and the clamour for a referendum; troop numbers in Iraq; confirming the replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent; authorising a new generation of nuclear power stations; increasing the number of prison places, and deciding whether to push for 90-day detention without trial for terrorist suspects.

As chancellor, he could concentrate simply on opening and closing the coffers. As prime minister, he will face a bewildering array of decisions on all sides. As he assembles his team in his big tent, doubts persist over whether his character is capable of the inclusiveness he hopes for.

One leading psychologist, who has studied Brown’s speeches and body language and examined the characters of previous prime ministers, claimed this weekend that Gordon was still an unreconstructed teenager in a 56-year-old’s body. Brown, says Professor Binna Kandola of Sheffield University, “has passive-aggressive tendencies, withdrawing from people he dislikes and even freezing them out”. Kandola says he is likely to be “one of the most difficult prime ministers to work with of the past 100 years”.

On Friday Brown said: “I want to get people of real talent and experience and expertise, not because of party labels, but because they have something to offer the country.”

But the experience of those invited to help by Brown at the Treasury is not encouraging. Many businessmen and other experts were flattered to be asked to carry out reviews for Brown, only to find themselves much less close to power than they expected. “I think I saw Gordon once when I was doing my review, and that was for about 10 minutes,” said one. Another, Sir Michael Lyons, saw his review on local government canned on the day it was published.

So as the Gordonbury festival opens, the tent is taking shape and lineup looks promising, but there’s no guarantee that it will not all end up in a muddy mess.

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