This blog specialises in criticising politicians when they say and do things that fall short of our ideas about democracy, effectiveness and accountability in political institutions. So it is only fair to praise someone when he has done something good.

Step forward foreign secretary David Miliband, whose speech on Monday 26 October entitled “Strong Britain in a strong Europe” makes excellent reading. (You can find it here.)

It is on the Foreign Office website, so the attack on the Conservative contained in his remarks hides behind the phrase [Party political content], but if you read his positive words about the value of European cooperation in foreign policy, you can probably work out what he would have said.