As Mr Al Fayed learned when he sought British citizenship, and Man U's Irishmen did when they quarrelled with the club's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, last winter, local acceptance does not come easy.

ECONOMIST: Football

They say that successive Polish governments have quarrelled and dithered over every public project.

ECONOMIST: A survey of EU enlargement

But when he quarrelled with some of his relatives, they knew how to take the cruellest revenge - a pair of scissors in the night and it was gone.

BBC: Moustaches under threat