They have been pretty grim. I suppose we can’t blame him for the dreadful weather but he didn’t even try to associate himself with Al Gore’s concert demanding action on climate change.

We’ll not rehearse all the ways in which Brown is quickly establishing himself as even more right wing than Blair. I’m taking it that my sensible readers already agree with the proposition but I’ll just draw attention to two of them. Is it wrong to assume that Digby Jones has grown up to be such a hate-filled demon because of his rage at the parents who gave him such a ludicrous name? I would have. If John Major had made such a nasty piece of work as this minister for trade and investment it would have been seen as a declaration of class warfare. Then there is private equity’s Damon Buffini. The GMB had a demonstration outside his church to make some silly point about rich men, camels and eyes of needles. Here’s what the union said he did: “Damon Buffini is boss of venture capitalist, CVC/PERMIRA and has presided over the sacking of 3,500 of the AA’s 10,000 workforce since taking the AA over in 2004. Disabled staffs (sic) were targeted for the sack.” What did GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny demand in the same letter to Labour MPs? “to ask you not meet with its representative or to take part in or attend any events held by this venture capitalist company and its owners.” Blimey! What a lunatic ultra-left thing to ask!

How did Brown show his support for the GMB? He appointed Buffini to the Business Council For Britain and the National Council for Educational Excellence. Was he trying to tell the union leaderships something? This is the same Gordon Brown that virtually all the union leaderships, all the “real” Labour people and a big chunk of the soft left were so keen should replace Blair because Brown belonged to the Labour tribe in a way that Blair never wanted to. Instead it turns out that it is Brown who is rapidly trying to make sure that no trade unionist would want anything to do with Labour ever again. He has marked his first weeks in government by making a strategic turn to the most parasitic and combative representatives of British capitalism and has not felt the need to offer anything at all to the union bureaucrats while at the same time imposing pay cuts on many public sector workers.

It is staggering just how vacuous and impotent the union leaders are at the minute. At next year’s union conferences they will have made it very difficult for themselves to argue that there is anything to be gained by their members voting to retain the link with the Labour Party. Of course the absence of any viable alternative is the sure guarantee that we will not see any splits or disaffiliations but even in the dawn of his leadership it looks like Gordon Brown wants to make Labour the natural party of British capitalism just as Blair made it the natural party of British imperialism.