Visitors from Russia: No flowers!

The Russian language, we don’t doubt, has an idiom that is the rough equivalent of the English exclamation ‘what a cheek they’ve got!’

That was almost certainly the initial reaction at the British foreign office when it received a request, presumably delivered by a diplomat from Moscow’s now spy-free London embassy, for a consular visit to Yulia Skripal, who is on the mend in a Wiltshire hospital.

“Good news,” the embassy tweeted, “as Yulia Skripal is reported as recovering well,” before insisting on its right to talk to her. This is unusual.

Tourists who have spent a sweaty day on the Med waiting to see a consular official in pursuit of an emergency passport know that fellow citizens are the last people they want to see.

Whether or not Ms Skripal agrees to see someone sent by Moscow will be up to her.

But she’ll ask them not to bother with the customary flowers or grapes.