Once again, a dottery old relic of terrible pre-democracy days has come out and done something rather nice.

Over here, we’re quite used to the Lords making surprising sense about legal and constitutional issues, about issues of liberty and issues of common sense. And we’re also unsurprised when Prince Philip decides that all this ‘diplomacy’ nonsense is best used by others.

In Spain it seems that both packages come as one.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to “shut up” as the Ibero-American summit drew to a close in Santiago, Chile.

The outburst came after Mr Chavez called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a “fascist”.

Mr Chavez then interrupted Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s calls for him to be more diplomatic, prompting the king’s outburst.

Well done, lad. More people just telling random dictators to shut up, that’s what we want to see.