Are Norway and Switzerland twins? The Swiss have their snow-capped peaks, green valleys and fat cows; so do Norwegians, with blue fjords thrown in for good measure. As hardy mountain people, both are content to sit on the sidelines of European integration, prizing a self-sufficiency based on foreigners’ need for their bank vaults or oil.

There are darker similarities too. Norway may be clean of Swiss-style entanglements with Nazi gold but it gave the world the word (and the man) “quisling”. Switzerland irks the world with bank secrecy; Norway’s predilection for whale hunting upsets a lot of people.