Expelled Russian diplomats - a taste of nostalgia

There was a time when the news always seemed to be read by Richard Baker and consisted entirely of deaths in Northern Ireland, a negative balance of payments (remember what that was?) and the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats between Russia and Britain.

So, it is somewhat of a throw-back to the Cold War to read that the UK has expelled four Russian diplomats after Moscow refused the extradite the suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko murder case.

Things have got to a pretty serious stage when this sort of action is taken.