IT IS not logically possible for anyone to have ‘gone off script’ during an ‘unscripted appearance’. That David Miliband can construct a sentence accusing David Cameron of such an offence is unfortunate proof that the the control freak mentality that characterised New Labour throughout  the ‘on message’ mid 1990s is alive and well.

The occasion for the outburst came in an appearance on the World at One yesterday, in which the former foreign secretary discussed the current prime minister’s suggestion that elements within the Pakistani state are complicit in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and India.

That this is the case is not in doubt to anyone who reads international relations journals, or even serious newspapers. The involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence with the Taliban is not something that has only just come to light thanks to the classified material published on WikiLeaks earlier this week. Nor will the idea that the ISI covertly backs Kashmiri militants shock many observers of south Asian affairs.

The spluttered denials from sources in Islamabad lack even a semblance of conviction. To hear a senior official of Jamaat-i-Islami – a party of clerical authoritarian war criminals – warn Cameron that his words might foment ‘anti-American, anti-West’ sentiment only compounds the irony.

There are many grounds on which it is right for Labour politicians to criticise Cameron and the administration he leads. But simply stating commonly-known facts in plain English in response to a question at a press conference does not strike me as one of them.