Just a ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ thought

Last night I went to Oxford for an evening meal – a round trip of five hours – and spent much of my driving time listening to Radio Four and/or Radio Five Live – both of whom’s air-time that was much devoted to the two Russian ‘ordinary members of public’ or – depending upon your viewpoint – ‘members of the GRU’ (a Russian agency of which, as someone whose knowledge of Russian state intelligence outfits does not extend beyond the KGB, I had never previously heard) who seemed to protest rather too much that they were simply innocent tourists who had travelled to see the splendid 123 metre spire of  Salisbury Cathedral.

Overnight, in a state of some puzzlement and cynicism at the Russian state’s latest effort to deflect and/or answer the global opprobium flying its way, I was left secretly hoping that our wonderful British secret services, police detectives and Crown Prosecution Service have somewhere in their lockers a file of slam-dunk, cast-iron, evidence – CCTV footage of our two Russian heroes actually approaching the Skripals’ home front door perhaps? – that they have so far been secretly holding back either for any future trial for attempted murder and/or for just a scenario like the present one … and are (one day soon) about to make it public.

In the meantime, for the delectation of Rust readers who may have missed it, here is a link to a report on yesterday’s interview by Sam Greenhill, Chief Reporter, as appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL