The narrative requires us to believe that a double agent, Sergei Skripal, ‘previously’ employed by MI6, who was jailed in 2006 for treason against the Russian state, released in 2010 and came to settle in Britain, is subject to a clumsy assassination attempt by his former government. This attempt was made via use of a ‘nerve gas’ which, it is alleged, was produced by Russian laboratories and goes by the name,  ‘Novichok’. Yet, even the very existence of said chemical weapon is doubtful:  “As recently as 2016 Dr Robin Black, Head of the Detection Laboratory at the UK’s only chemical […]