Black humour can be a good way of getting over traumatic experiences, and there is no doubt that the leadership turmoil surrounding Ed Miliband has been deeply unsettling.
In the spirit of moving on so we can regroup, some in Westminster are suggesting that the week of speculation over the leadership has been Labour’s equivalent of a four-year itch.
Some members of parliament flirted with the idea of ending their union with Ed and running off with someone else.
But wise friends reminded them of the solemn vows they had made. The silver fox to whom they made advances gave them a brisk slap on the wrist and told them to get a grip.
Ed’s speech on Thursday, and the way MPs and activists alike rallied behind it, shows we have done just that.
Like the best enduring relationships, Labour and Ed himself can emerge stronger from this brief wobble. Its enduring legacy can be recognition of Labour’s hunger to win rather than despair.
Critically, the increased pressure has given Ed the platform to remind our party what they saw in him in the first place. That guy is tough and resolute: qualities the British public want from anyone auditioning to be their next prime minister.
The reception for his fightback suggests he has persuaded internal doubters that he is – without further question or uncertainty – going to lead Labour into the general election.
He will lead us united towards a goal that is open wide. The next election is Labour’s to lose – we are facing an incompetent government that is doing the wrong things, badly.
Britain cannot afford another five years of this, there is too much at stake.
The incredible and accelerating pace of technological advance makes today’s jobs and lifestyles uncertain but opens up amazing possibilities for the future. Ever-increasing connections between countries leads to instability and risk that must be managed but also new opportunities to create the wealth we need for families to prosper after years in which the economy has stagnated.
David Cameron has been dragged off the centre-ground of British politics by his unreconstructed rightwingers. His party is as divided and obsessed by Europe as it ever was.
There is a great risk to Britain from the Conservatives’ small-minded, Ukip-fuelled isolationism that pretends the answer is withdrawing from the world and ignoring the changes that are taking place in it. The result is a woefully unconfident vision to present to the British people. Worse than that, it is a false prospectus that will never work and will leave people feeling even more embittered and excluded from what is happening in the country.
Ed knows we have a duty to fill the gap the Tories have left with a bold and credible government that is honest about the change coming down the track. Instead of offering up a scapegoat to blame, Labour’s defining mission will be to equip people to deal with and benefit from that change by breaking down the barriers that are shutting them out.
That will mean ensuring the economy supports good jobs in every area and offering everyone the help they need to get them. It will require our public services and infrastructure programmes to be laser focused on achieving that goal, tackling vested interests of any kind – private or public.
Above all, it will mean showing we have the discipline and determination to transform our divided country in a new era in which faith in government is low and the prospect of big state spending has gone for the foreseeable future.
We are up for this fight. We are going to work flat out up and down the country to convince people of Labour’s bold programme of change and make Ed our prime minister.
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John Woodcock MP is chair of Progress and co-editor with Liz Kendall MP of Laying the Foundations for a Labour Century