Another gaffe as Miliband flies to Cardiff to deliver keynote Scottish independence speech

So good to be back in Scotland.

Aides close to Ed Miliband were rallying around the gaffe prone Labour leader after he surprisingly arrived in Cardiff to deliver his first major speech on the vote for Scottish independence.

Although officials tried to explain away the obvious error by saying that Miliband was in Cardiff to be available in the unlikely event that NATO leaders wanted to consult with him, the explanation seems to be that the Opposition leader was under the mistaken belief that Cardiff was in Scotland.

The situation wasn’t helped when upon arriving at Cardiff Airport, Miliband, wearing a specially made Kinnock clan tartan tie to show solidarity with the local population, asked where he could buy some Edinburgh rock as a souvenir.

“OK, there have been one or two geographical errors,” admitted a long suffering party official, speaking off the record. “Alistair Darling had invited Ed to Scotland support the No Campaign, but Ed didn’t trust Darling to make the travel arrangements as Gordon Brown had always blamed him for the global economic crisis and his departure from office.”

“Not only that,” added the forlorn official, “but Ed said he had never liked the way that Darling behaved in Blackadder Goes Forth, so rather than trusting anyone else, he booked the tickets himself to …. er …… Cardiff, Scotland.”

Miliband was apparently unrepentant, or at least oblivious, to the gaffe, which has played into the hands of Alex Salmond. When asked during a local radio station interview if was aware that Cardiff wasn’t in Scotland, Miliband laughed and said “You’re not going to catch me out like that. Next you’ll be trying to tell me that Glasgow is in Scotland.”