There was an almost audible sigh of relief from all three party leaders at the end of a routine prime minister's question time on Wednesday.

They had managed to get through the entire 30-minute session without anyone, not even a wayward backbencher, mentioning the family.

It was an odd triumph, bearing in mind the government's consultation paper on the family was the main political announcement of the day.

But there was the distinct feeling on all sides that, on this subject, the less said the better. And everyone knew why.

Tony Blair, committed though he is to the paper's aims, has been acutely embarrassed by the alleged homosexual antics of his ousted Welsh Secretary Ron Davies.

Painful memories

And things were made worse last Thursday when government whip David Clelland announced he was doing a Robin Cook, and leaving his wife after an affair with his secretary.

More importantly William Hague knew he had better not raise the issue as it would bring back painful memories of John Major's disastrous "back to basics" campaign of 1993 which unleashed a tidal wave of Tory sleaze.

And Paddy Ashdown, who has never been one to preach about family values, would still have faced fresh taunts about his Paddy Pantsdown tag which followed the 1992 revelations of a five-year-old affair with his secretary.

So it was probably best that the three were left slugging it out over the economy and voting reform.

And, for a government announcement, the whole family green paper was treated in a highly-unusual manner.

The normal aim of ensuring picture opportunities, press releases and Commons statements to maximise media coverage appeared to have been forgotten for once.

Not preaching

Home Secretary Jack Straw made his first pronouncements at some ungodly hour of the morning, they were followed by an official launch in south London at 8.45am - and the whole thing was effectively done and dusted by 10am.

There was a lingering feeling that the government would rather have forgotten the entire thing.

Mr Straw was even forced to repeat time and again that ministers were not preaching to the voters and it was "no business of the government to tell adults how to conduct their adult personal relationships." But to have abandoned the proposals would have looked like a panic measure.

And, to be fair, the government is committed to them and does not see them as part of any new moral crusade.

Tony Blair and Jack Straw genuinely want to bolster the traditional family unit and cut the record numbers of divorce and teenage pregnancies, while not attacking alternative lifestyles.