The TUC comrades didn't give Gordon Brown the reception he deserved at their Brighton conference. If there is any doubt in trade union minds after his Bournemouth speech about where Brown stands, they need only look to what the bosses' union, the CBI, is saying about him.
If Brown has upset the CBI, he must be doing a good job, although the CBI matters much less these days. It matters even less since Digby Jones took over, but getting attacked by the CBI is still good news for a Labour chancellor.
Digby Jones spends much of his time complaining about the unions having too many rights, although British workers get the worst deal in Europe. He now has the cheek to attack the Chancellor on the economy, even though it is the strongest in Europe.
Fortunately, the Treasury under Brown isn't as meek and mild as it was under Ken Clarke. It immediately issued a full rebuttal of the CBI's bogus figures. The CBI is claiming that companies have been hit by a tax on pensions. That's a bigger lie than Blair's claim not to be involved in dodgy dossiers.
The Chancellor did not put a tax on pensions: he merely abolished the tax relief on share dividends received by pension funds, and the only people who may have suffered are pensioners. The CBI companies went on "pension holidays" in the good years and now they either whine about paying company pensions or simply stop paying them.
The CBI dossier, every bit as dodgy as Blair's, was billions of pounds out in its calculations. Let's hope Brown refuses to speak again to the CBI unless it replaces Jones with someone who can add up.
