Drastic differences of interpretation

David Miliband's speech at the College of Europe in Bruges provoked a wildly disparate response from Friday's papers, which reinforces the point David Rennie made on coverage of the EU - rarely is it accurate, let alone balanced.

In what was a comparatively modest speech looking at the future of the EU, the Daily Express, delved deep into its chest of conspiracy theories and raged against Miliband's "project for the Islamification of Europe". The Daily Mail decided he had "grandiose ambitions for a new EU empire" but the Independent took precisely the opposite view, accusing him of wishing to "diminish the EU".

The Guardian praised his "meaty" speech and was relieved to hear talk of an “outward-looking EU” but the Independent complains it wasn’t ambitious enough.

Hmmm. So plenty of coverage but few actual quotes and a rag-bag of claims, mostly unfounded and from the usual suspects. If you want to find out what Miliband actually said, his speech is up on the Foreign Office’s website here.