So how does it all hang together? The two Russians ill at the same time, apparent contamination in the home, the graveyard, the restaurant, the pub. Some first responders apparentely not ill but the policeman who apparently visited the house afterwards is ill.

it is a mystery!!

totally .... answer might be that the contaminant was at home (in area I know v well ), they ingested it (could have been in a range of formats ... and then went for a trip to town (via the London Rd cemetery where maybe they left flowers etc), they left the car at Sainsbury's car park and wondered through to Zizzi's, past Lakeland to the the Mill and then sat outside the Works where the poison hit 'em. The copper went to the house later and maybe he got some of the novichok too.

Did anyone hear the interview on R4 this am? The Russian MP was frightening.

Yes, it is indeed a mystery!!



Yes, those were the lines I was thinking along -- but how would they have contaminated those places (if indeed they have) and what would the PC have done at their house to get a dose of it --- but there's photos of other police standing on his doorstep, upper windows open etc, no one looking bothered about being contaminated. And eye witness said the woman ill on the bench was blonde ... but the daughter is brunette?

A nerve agent can't be passed on through the sweating, salivating, sneezing etc can it? Won't its nature have been changed?

It's very sad, and I wouldn't want to have been potentially contaminated in the area - that must be scary if it can take a while to have an effect, whaatever it is, but it's a cracker of a mystery.

And the Russian's house, according to the press, used to belong to the Wiltshire police. Not signficant I know, but just another peculiar thing in a peculiar story.

Well I am loving the spectacle of TM trying to look scary to VP. The Russians think it's all fair game, which I suppose from their POV it is - the risks of becoming a double agent I guess.

Yes - I don't think this business about having until midnight to own up is going to work somehow.

Yes, it reminds me of the kind of hollow threats you hear some parents dishing out to toddlers in the desperate hope of making them behave at other people's houses. She is already a figure of ridicule both domestically and internationally and she is now at risk of making herself look even more daft unless she can think of a credible course of action which won't get old Yellow-hair twitching his finger over the nuclear button from across the Atlantic.

ETA - Oh, I see that won't be on the cards, as Trump has now sacked Tillerson for speaking out against Russia. The plot thickens. What fun this would be if only these people weren't in charge of the world.

Trump will Keep his distance on this one and TM’s statement seems to have gone down well internationally with both Rex Tillerson and the EU offering support - but she does have to act on that deadline.

See above. Who he?