What Do We Think Of Ed Milliband Not Signing Wreath

[gordiescotland1]

Ed Milliband never signed his wreath yesterday it was just written from the head of the opposition he has come in for a lot of criticism as lack of respect what do other abs think?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11010899/Ed-Miliband-branded-crass-for-not-signing-wreath-for-First-World-War-commemoration.html

[mushroom25]

Gordie, Ed was handed his wreath with the card already written, as a done deal.

the suggestion is that he was stitched-up.

[Svejk]

http://m.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1355815.html

[Gromit]

At the Remembrance Day in November, MPs provide their own Wreath and write their own personal tributes. ( You may remember Boris Johnson claimed the cost of his wreath from Expenses ). Miliband and Clegg have laid a Wreath with personal messages since they became their Party's leaders.

On this occassion, the wreaths were to be provided for the dignitries who had been shipped into Glasgow for the ceremony. It was arranged by the Government, and the first that most dignitaries saw of the wreaths was when they were handed them to place on the memorial. Except the Government Department responsible had beforehand distributed cards to the Royals and Prime Minister to write personal messages. No such courtesy was offered to the other Commonwealth leaders or UK party leaders.

At best a cock up by Sajid Javid's Department of Culture, Media and Sport. At worse it is a cynical ploy which dishonours our dead in the Great War.

[Svejk]

mushroom's suggestion.

[boxtops]

It looks as if the card was written not by him, but by someone in his department - or even by the organisation getting all the wreaths together, just to show whose is which - then not replaced by a personal tribute. The handwriting looks as if it's a note, not a tribute message. I think it's possibly a grand faux pas.

[ChillDoubt]

For someone who(quite rightly IMHO) made quite a show of defending his father over the spurious recent allegations and considering his father certainly 'did his bit' in WWII one might have expected Red Ed to have made sure this one had a bit of the personal touch to it though.

[jno]

how? He was handed the wreath minutes before the laying, with the card already filled in. Would you have wanted the ceremony delayed while he argued with the organisers for a clean card to write on?

I'm not sure it was a stitch-up, but it was definitely bungled.

[gingejbee]

Why do people insist on creating trouble when none exists?

[Orderlimit]

Idle.

[jackthehat]

All the cards are identical and look as if they left the factory affixed in position and blank. DC must have taken/been given the opportunity to fill his out......EM, NC and AS for some reason didn't fill out their cards and so the same hand has filled in the cards, as 'something' would be far less disrespectful than a blank card.

I see no conspiracy, just a cock-up and no-one seeking to create political mileage out of it comes out looking terribly good.

[Gromit]

Jth

The wreaths and cards were organised by the Department of Culture. They let Cameron and the Royals fill in a personal message. Everybody else did not see the cards or wreath until they were handed it to place on the memorial.

[Cloverjo]

This has been addressed in the link posted by svejk. When are personal messages to the dead ever written on A4 sheets crudely printed with "REMEMBRANCE" across the top? It is obvious that DC and his lot had the chance to write a message on their crappy bits of paper, while EM did not. He thought he was just laying a wreath.

[Baldric]

///it later emerged that a number of other political leaders including Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, also placed wreaths with similar messages, written in the same handwriting///

[jackthehat]

I keep seeing mention of A4 sheets......the cards look exactly the same to me.

Gromit - Perhaps 'someone' in their respective entourages (Milliband, etc) ought to have made it their business to find out beforehand whether there would be opportunity for them to write a personal message?

[ludwig]

Apparently someone also stuck a label on Ed's back saying 'Kick me' and one on Clegg's saying 'Tw4t'.

I don't like to see solemn occasions hi-jacked for that kind of cynical point scoring.

[Gromit]

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/4/327369/default/v1/pix-1-522x293.jpg

https://twitter.com/jamesmatthewsky/status/496294379909566464/photo/1

[Old_Geezer]

Blow the unsigned wreath. I went right off him as soon as I saw him encouraging local councils to extort from those constituents with an empty property by loading an extra 50% rates on them, despite their lower use of services. We need bullies in authority like the proverbial hole in the head.