The apparent poisoning of a couple in Amesbury comes at an unfortunate moment, just as the diplomatic turmoil caused by the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal was beginning to ease – or, at least, had drifted down the list of media and public talking points. Anxiety about spies and chemical weapons had given way to World Cup hysteria: in a game of Mallett’s Mallet, “Russia” would in recent weeks be met with the response of “football”, rather than “novichok”.

Certainly it is an extraordinary turn of events, coming nearly four months after the attack which left the Skripals fighting for their lives. Having initially been cautious about drawing a link between that incident and the illness that struck down ️Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess at the weekend, the police now appear convinced of a connection.

Indeed, the working hypothesis is that the unwitting couple – who had been in Salisbury prior to falling ill – somehow stumbled on the poison at the location where it had been prepared before the targeting of the Skripals, or where its residue had been discarded in the aftermath. On the face of it that feels like a perfectly plausible theory, especially when the background of the individuals affected at the weekend do not lend themselves to an alternative proposition that they were deliberate victims of a second attack.

Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Show all 40 1 /40 Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators, wearing protective suits, emerge with bagged evidence from the rear of John Baker House in Salisbury, after it was confirmed that two people living in Amesbury had been poisoned with the nerve-agent Novichok. Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dawn Sturgess, a mother-of-three from Durrington, died after being exposed to novichok Facebook Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police are scouring sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Officers hope that Charlie Rowley, whose partner Dawn died in hospital, can help them establish how the couple came to be contaminated AFP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok An investigator in a chemical suit works behind screens erected in Rollestone Street PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service personel arrive with safety equipment at the site of a housing estate on Muggleton Road, after it was confirmed that two people had been poisoned with the nerve-agent novichok, in Amesbury Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators at John Baker House Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police and military personnel seized a car from a quiet residential street in Swindon as part of their ongoing investigations into the nerve agent incident in Salisbury and Amesbury SWNS Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency workers in military protective suits search the fenced off John Baker House AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok A forensic investigator, wearing a protective suit, emerges from the rear of John Baker House, after it was confirmed that two people had been poisoned with the nerve-agent Novichok, in Amesbury, Britain, July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls HENRY NICHOLLS Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators at John Baker House Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at John Baker House EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dorset Fire and Rescue Service at the house PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Tents set up by search teams are seen at the end of Rollestone Street, outside the John Baker House for homeless people in Salisbury. British police are scouring sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dorset Fire and Rescue Service at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service safety equipment Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police activity at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at John Baker House EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service safety equipment PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police tents are erected outside a residential address in Amesbury, southern England, on July 6, 2018 where police reported a man and woman were found unconscious in circumstances that sparked a major incident after contact with what was later identified as the nerve agent Novichok. Police on July 6, 2018, raced to find the object that contaminated a British couple with the Soviet-made Novichok nerve agent in southwestern England where a former Russian spy was poisoned with the same toxin four months ago. / AFP PHOTO / Chris J RatcliffeCHRIS J RATCLIFFE/AFP/Getty Images CHRIS J RATCLIFFE AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at the house in Muggleton Road in Amesbury PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Members of the emergency services at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Gas masks AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic tents outside John Baker House on Rolleston Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, where counter-terrorism police are investigating after a couple were left in a critical condition when they were exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday July 6, 2018. Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45, were taken ill on Saturday in Amesbury, around eight miles from where former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with the same substance in Salisbury in March. See PA story POLICE Amesbury. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Sam Blewett PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service personel prepare safety equipment Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police investigators arrive at the site of a housing estate on Muggleton Road Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok A police officer stands guard behind the housing estate REUTERS Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police on the scene Getty Images Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok The couple remain in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok In March Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were poisoned with the Russian-made Novichok in the town of Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May has accused Russia of being behind the attack on the former spy and his daughter, expelling 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation Getty Images Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police are cordoning off places the people are known to have visited before falling ill EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police officers stand outside a residential property in Amesbury AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Deputy Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Paul Mills makes a statement to the press outside The Bowman Centre after Wiltshire Police declared the situation a major incident Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury Baptist Centre PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury resident Sam Hobson, speaks to assembled press outside Amesbury Baptist Centre claiming to be a friend of the man and woman exposed to an unknown substance Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok The pair were found unconscious at an address in Muggleton Road, Amesbury Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police cordon at Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury. The town is around 10 miles from Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in a suspected nerve agent attack PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Deputy Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Paul Mills makes a statement Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police officers stand outside Boots pharmacy, near to the Barcroft Medical Centre in Amesbury PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury Baptist Centre PA

Inevitably, though, conspiracy theories abound already. Just as there are plenty of people who do not believe the British government’s account of Russia’s involvement in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, so there are now sceptics who are raising red flags over the latest incident.

At the technical end of the scale are self-pronounced experts who contend that the symptoms reported to have been exhibited by Rowley and Sturgess (and, for that matter, the Skripals before them) are not the right fit for novichok poisoning. On the contrary, they say, the more likely explanation is that the pair were exposed to BZ, probably manufactured at the conveniently located Porton Down (which provides the organisational bogeyman for the disbelievers).

Doubts about the “official” narrative then play into the broader conspiracy favoured by online dissenters, which is that the British government – having been responsible for the Skripals’ “poisoning” (it may or may not have been a total scam, depending on which branch of the conspiracy you prefer) – is also behind the hospitalisation of Sturgess and Rowley.

The purported motive is to renew attention on Russia’s supposed involvement in the Skripals case in order to dilute the soft power victory provided by its hosting of the World Cup (or alternatively to distract attention from Brexit). Taken to its most extreme version, this extraordinary idea effectively accuses the British state of deliberately poisoning UK citizens in order to further a propaganda campaign against the Kremlin.

Even if you do not feel comfortable with the notion that the Russian state carried out the attack on the Skripals, these contrary propositions are absurd – but they are dangerous because they gain ground in an online environment that is contemptuous of officialdom, that delights in the most outlandish conspiracies, and that is actively nurtured by shadowy and malevolent state forces. In the absence of culprits being caught in the act red-handed, and a written confession from Vladimir Putin himself, the conspiracy theorists will continue to promulgate their nonsense.

None of this is to say that the public should not hold governments and officials to account, whether in this country or anywhere else. But it is plainly wrong – especially in a nation such as Britain in which the rule of law is strong, corruption in official agencies is not endemic, and democracy functions effectively – to assume that everything that comes from the mouth of a politician or a police officer or a government spokesperson is a lie, or at best a half-truth.

Yet increasingly there is such a presumption of guilt from some sections of society. Worse still, it has been weaponised by politicians themselves – most notably of course by Donald Trump, who has built electoral success on the premise that truth is in the eye of the beholder and that volume is king. Totalitarianism develops through strength of purpose and character, not veracity (indeed it generally requires the suspension of previously accepted norms).

All this is why it is imperative not only to let law enforcement agencies get on with their investigations in Salisbury and Amesbury, but also to place trust in their expertise and in their explanations – not as an article of faith but on a realistic understanding of how Britain works: which is to say that it is not a hotbed of official venality, in which citizens are bumped off at random by agents working to discredit Russia or any other foreign state with which the government isn’t super pally.