Storm in a tea cup: Is tea with biscuits fitting nourishment for an ambassador?

The ambassador of the French Republic, Her Excellency Madame Bermann, seems destined to become the most controversial of appointments to the Court of St James. First there was that – denied and false – memo prepared by the British and leaked during the general election that supposedly said Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to win. Now comes tea-and-biscuits-gate, about whether the shadow Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn, offended French sensibilities by offering her delegation some traditional British hospitality.

It is not recorded if Mr Benn offered “to be mother”, which might have added confusion and exacerbated diplomatic frustration. Perhaps Mr Benn inadvertently offered the ambassador a Bourbon biscuit. Do we have to issue an FoI request to discover the truth?

Mr Benn, it seems, takes after his father in possessing impeccable manners and a taste for tea (Tony famously used to quaff it by the pint mug, and was also teetotal). Mme Bermann, equally validly, and equally polite, believes in cordon bleu and fine wine. Both of the left, Mr Benn represents a fine non-conformist, even Roundheaded approach to life, while Sylvie-Agnès seems the champagne socialist type. There is room for both in the corridors of power, and room for both in our European Union. Vive la différence, as they say over there, over tea.