Samantha Cameron should spread privilege too Sometimes I gaze at Michelle Obama and feel pure envy for the Americans - they know how to do First Ladies. The US know how to do First Ladies. In fact, they are so good at First Ladies that a former political wife, Hillary Clinton, is now Secretary of State and apparently the great hope for the White House of the future. Michelle Obama has carved out a clear, distinct platform for the issues she cares about, and regularly appears in public on her own to speak out and raise awareness. But here, nothing. I called the Downing Street press office to ask if Samantha had anything like an official diary, or schedule of events such as visits or openings that she attends, but nobody seemed to know. They said they'd get back to me, but I'm still waiting. So there is a vacuum here into which we can pour our assumptions - is she shy? Not interested? Perhaps she doesn't really feel very passionately about any social causes. Previous political partners seem to have had a personality that would provide a fiery counterpoint to their spouse, such that you could imagine heated, interesting, political debates happening in the home. I found that reassuring - it implied that the job of running the country was so important that it spilled into every area of a person's life, and that they had chosen a partner who would discuss and even challenge their own beliefs and assumptions. Try as I might, I can't picture this in the Cameron household. Our Prime Minister has made a big deal in the past about carving out time from his schedule for his much maligned 'chillaxing', and perhaps Samantha forms part of this - she is there to help him relax, to soothe, to be the one person with whom he doesn't have to talk politics. Perhaps that's what makes their marriage work. I'm not a fan of David Cameron, but he does not strike me as the kind of man who would object to his wife having more of a role in public life, so I can only assume the total lack of anything other than smiling nicely and wearing the most fashion forward belt of the moment is coming from her. And for me, it speaks powerfully of this modern, 'everybody's the same' Toryism that leaves me unconvinced. Samantha is an aristocrat through and through, she comes from massive inherited wealth and privilege, and yet there does not seem to be any sense from her of a desire to share her it. In the past, the thing that offset inherited wealth and position was a sense that one had not earned this money or position, and so one had a responsibility to society to help those who had not been born so fortunately as yourself - a Downton-Abbey-style Conservative. Samantha Cameron should become a Downton Abbey style Conservative. Samantha seems to want to pretend that this part of her life does not exist - she has been said to consider herself 'middle class', when she is anything but. A middle-class woman has made her own way, earned her own money, and can sit back and choose as many posh kitchens as she likes. Samantha Cameron was born, raised and married into unimaginable privilege. She has never known anything else. That's nice for her, but as her husband promised in his conference speech, I'd so love to see her start to spread it. If this government's message begins at home, doesn't that include the home of the Prime Minister?