They also often cannot understand how we can afford to live here – a sentiment that’s shared by the inhabitants of these islands, too! Now that most of us spend at least part of the year abroad, we can all too plainly see for ourselves that Britain in general, and Scotland in particular, is in many cases far, far dearer than most other countries.

Basic foodstuffs cost a fortune here; for instance there’s a mock-French boulangerie near my Edinburgh home where I regularly hand over a fiver for a couple of croissants and a baguette, when the same things can be had for coppers in the land of their origin. Yes, I know what you’re saying – what a fool I am to pay that much for such ordinary fare. I have no excuse, other than the stuff’s good and the shop is convenient.

I’ve been keeping a close weather eye, too, on the prices charged by holiday home owners for renting out their properties and have been astonished at how much people are apparently prepared to pay to stay in some very ordinary wee houses. It’s reasonably well known that to rent a holiday residence in places like Elie, in Fife – or Merchiston sur Mer, to give it its other name – will often take you well into four figures for a week in high summer.

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