The truth about Ed Miliband's WW1 wreath message

People got angry today when Ed Miliband apparently scrawled an insincere message on a wreath he put on the Cenotaph in Glasgow as part of today's World War One centenary commemorations.

It started when Channel 4 News's Ciaran Jenkins tweeted this picture:

When viewed next to the prime minister's more fulsome message, the note written by Miliband seemed positively heartless.

The response was typically furious:

While some glorified in the Labour leader suffering a similar fate to his predecessor Michael Foot, Labour pointed out that Miliband had not had the chance to write his own message as David Cameron had, and had instead just been handed the wreath shortly before he placed it at the Cenotaph.

“Ed Miliband was not given the opportunity to write a personal message on the wreath and was only handed it seconds before he had to lay it," a spokesperson told The Independent.

Pictures of other wreaths show that it wasn't just Miliband who did not have the opportunity to write a personal message.

Even the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's wreath had a simple message that purely indicated it was his wreath to lay.

So really, there is no story. And a day on which those who died in World War One were meant to be being remembered, a misunderstanding was seized upon to play party politics.

Some people will just never get it, however.

Plus ça change.