The Daily Telegraph: "New Labour is dead"
The Daily Mail: "Last rites for New Labour"
The Times: "Miliband buries New Labour"
Above is how the press has reported the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader.
It isn't true: New Labour policies and structures, and the personnel of the New Labour machine, are still in place.
But the press coverage is not inconsequential, either.
It certainly reflects a new mood in the unions. The union leaders went against the Parliamentary leadership over the choice of a new leader - the big majority of the ex-Cabinet wanted David Miliband - and they won.
The union leaders now know, and tens of thousands of trade union activists "below" them now know, that they can go against the Parliamentary leadership and win.
The 35,000 new members who have joined the Labour Party since the election, and the tens of thousands of older members who have "sat it out", resenting the "New Labour" shift but seeing no way to stop it, have been given a signal that things should change and can change.
New Labour isn't dead. But to have its death announced, in a labour movement where tens of thousands of activists have a deep-rooted hatred of New Labour, is a sizeable blow to its smooth continuation.
As John McDonnell MP put it in a fringe meeting on Sunday evening, 26 September, we are potentially at a turning point - at the point where the Labour left hits bottom and starts to climb back.
That is not, McDonnell stressed, because we can or should have any confidence in Ed Miliband personally to change the Labour Party for the better. It is because we have a new chance to begin to organise a more confident and assertive rank and file.
It won't be easy, and it's unlikely to be quick, and we can't even guarantee that the left will be smart enough to seize the opportunity, but an opportunity is there.
