”Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours…”

Malik Al-Abdeh is one of hundreds of British Syrians who have watched the state killings of protesters in their homeland with horror over the past year.

Six weeks ago his cousin joined the list of 8,000 fatalities, helping the opposition fightback amid the ranks of the Free Syrian Army.

The trauma has not been helped by increasingly fraught relations in his own road in Acton , west London – where he lives opposite the father-in-law of the Syrian dictator.

Splendid! Aren’t we lucky?

We don’t have to just watch foreign tribal conflicts on our 50” screen TVs now, they happen right outside our door!

The Independent revealed in November that Dr Akhras's house had been attacked by opposition protesters, and Mr Al-Abdeh said relations in the neighbourhood are prickly because of his family links.

"There has been a lot of animosity toward the Akhras family," he said. "A woman from Homs saw Asma's mother walking down the street as she was driving, so she wound down the window and swore at her."

And no doubt with a chic foreign accent, quite unlike our home-grown abuse-yelling chavs. Oh, how deliciously vibrant and diverse!