Yes, unemployment is eye-blinkingly high in Spain, with official figures at 26 percent and rising; Italy still feels more complacent than urgent; France more sourly perplexed, and Germany still adamant about fiscal rectitude above all. The government of the European Union remains more toothless than it should be about pressing matters such as pan-Europe banking regulations, and more powerful than anyone wants about minutia such as sports policy. Few who have been intimately involved in the various summits, high and low, over the past four years have departed feeling enlivened about the future prospects of European leaders arriving at bold answers and will then be actively endorsed by their various publics.

And, thanks to the timing of the conference season, it is they, and David Cameron in particular, who will have the last word.It is an odd pitch for a political party leader to make to his members - stick with me so I can continue to come third.

As we saw with Benghazi, rather than try to penetrate mainstream media outlets, there was a clear tendency for Romney advisers to do easy "hand-offs" to Fox on issues they wanted up and running. It reminded me of when we in the Labour Party used to just drop our best material in the laps of the Mirror; they would run it big, and we'd think we were talking to the whole country. In fact, we were talking almost entirely to our own supporters.

That Ken is still in the contest at all is a minor miracle, and down to the herculean efforts of his campaign team who have cobbled together a manifesto that's propagated the myth that what their man wants for in style he makes up for substance. But a myth is what it is. The mayor cannot set the price of the Oyster card independent of the train operators. He cannot restore the EMA. He will not convince David Cameron to hand him responsibility for the benefits system or London's health service. Livingstone's prospectus is a false one: a wish list, not a serious political program.

In an ideal world you would leave this job but I understand that at the moment wage packets arent that easy to come by, so it is probably best to stick it out for a while. It wont be pleasant, but since this happened so quickly hopefully getting over it might be equally speedy. Your boss certainly seems to have moved on without too much dawdling. Take a leaf out of his book and start going on dates. It doesnt particularly matter with whom, you just need something or someone to distract you from this Mr-and-Mrs fantasy.