There are honeymoons and then there are honeymoons, but surely there can’t be a shorter honeymoon than the one between the labour movement and Gordon Brown.

Many trade unionists have persuaded themselves that a revived real Labour, progressive Mr Brown will emerge, phoenix-like from the flames, in the wake of war criminal Tony Blair.

Self-delusion is a terrible thing, because who else can you blame?

You certainly can’t blame Mr Brown, the Iron Chancellor who has steamrollered through the neoliberal policies that have destroyed over a million manufacturing jobs, ripped the heart out of civil and public services and lost the exchequer billions because of his obsessive commitment to private finance initiatives.

No matter what he may have whispered in intimate last-night tete-a-tetes, Mr Brown has never given any indication that his political approach will be markedly different from that of Mr Blair.

He has lost no opportunity to confirm his commitment to the private sector and is never happier than when addressing business people.

His Wednesday night Mansion House speech to an audience of City slickers was typically gung-ho and patently transparent.

“In future, every single secondary school and primary school should have a business partner,” he declared, inviting his well-heeled audience to jump in and fill their boots.

The term he actually used was “participate,” but no-one is daft enough to believe that the motive force of private-sector companies is altruism.

Mr Brown is simply going one step further than his “city academy in every town” new Labour co-conspirator to demand that business should call the shots throughout the state education system.

And he is actually mimicking his predecessor in laying down detailed operational instructions for schools without any attempt to discuss, let alone negotiate, with teachers and their trade union representatives.

He would have been far better off having in-depth discussions with teachers’ unions rather than offering cushy jobs to pompous, self-satisfied and unelected Lib Dem peers.

When did he ever raise this issue with Labour Party conference, the party’s national executive committee or its too compliant by half backbenchers?

The Chancellor ought to learn, as teachers’ union ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted says, that “teachers and lecturers are not sales staff and learning is not a commodity.”

The same goes for Britain’s caring services, where Mr Brown plans to bring in big business to sponsor children in care.

Once again, business executives will only do that if there is profit for them in it. Education and welfare need adequate finance and that should come from the exchequer, not from privateers with their eye on the main chance.

The money is there if Mr Brown drops his dogmatic refusal to get the rich and powerful to pay their fair share of taxation.

Yet, while many workers feel taxed to the bone, of about 400 people in Britain who can pull in £10 million or more a year, just 65 pay any tax at all.

That is the Britain produced by new Labour economic policies. It is a situation that must be met by resolute labour movement opposition to create a more just and less stressful society.