A majority is always better than the best repartee, as that wily old politician Disraeli remarked, and today Sally Hunt can relish her victory as general secretary of the newly merged lecturers' union.
But it's a pretty small majority (1,346 votes) on a low turnout - 14% of the 117,000 members of the University and College Union, presumably among the nation's most literate and politically active trade unionists.
It's true that the ballot form was enormous, involving votes for an entire new national executive as well, but were academics and college lecturers really defeated by that, or does the lack of involvement reflect deeper disillusionment?
To put the UCU ballot in its trade union context, the current National Union of Teachers general secretary, Steve Sinnott, was elected on a 21.7% turnout.
Disappointment with last year's pay deal and Ms Hunt's handling of the dispute surfaced on this blog last June but Roger Kline, in the Natfhe corner, has failed to dislodge her from the front runner's position. Competition from a third candidate, Natfhe FE lecturer Peter Jones, didn't help him.
Have tempers cooled? Or have the effects of local deals under the national framework agreement added enough to enough people's pay packets to put members in a more forgiving mood?
Meanwhile Sally Hunt has the job - a job that includes trying to heal the wounds in the union inflicted during the long drawn-out merger process and forging a union that is more than its two disparate parts.
