A kiss for Mr Brown: the great and good pucker up for the PM

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, gets a friendly greeting from the PM in Berlin yesterday. Merkel, a rare female leader in a world still dominated by men, must be used to this kind of thing, and is perhaps dreading the upcoming G20 summit Photograph: Herbert Knosowski/AP

Gordon Brown greeting Cherie Blair, the wife of his long-time rival Tony Blair, at the 2008 Labour conference. Two years earlier, Blair had joked about the depth of feeling between Cherie and Brown, noting: "At least I know she isn't going to run off with the guy next door" Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters

Brown kisses Laura Bush, the wife of the then-US president George Bush, outside No 10 last year. It has to be said that Bush's body language here is a little strange – he appears to be trying his best to keep Brown a safe distance from his own wife Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's visit to London last year turned most of the press and politicians of Westminster into goggle-eyed schoolboys. But Brown was composed enough to have matched his tie to her jacket. Très bien Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Members of the public get the full Brown treatment too, as this picture from Prince Charles's May Day business summit last year shows Photograph: Michael Dunlea/PA

Brown leans in to kiss Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, in 2007. But Mandela seems to have something to say about that Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features

A kiss for Labour MP Joan Ruddock in 2007 ... Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

... and one for TV presenter June Sarpong at a Make Poverty History event three years earlier. Now, who's next? Photograph: Sarah Lee/Freelance