The truth is a bit less thrilling. In 2007, about 85,000 Brits visited Riga, taking advantage of the many direct flights which serve the city from points of origin across the UK. Many of those 85,000 tourists are people of my generation or older. They are attracted to Riga by its fine architecture and restaurants and they are eager to discover more about this lovely country as it continues to evolve away from the damaging effects of Soviet occupation.
As we all know, many of these tourists are also young men and women coming to Riga looking for a good time to celebrate significant birthdays or impending marriage. We do have problems occasionally as a result. But it is only occasionally. The number of Brits who found themselves on the wrong side of the law last year was statistically lower than you would be led to believe: namely less than 10 % of the overall number of foreigners apprehended, an improvement on the previous years.
I am not complacent about the improved figures. And I have never sought to disguise the issue. When I paid my introductory calls on the President and Prime Minister on arrival here in 2007, I committed the British Embassy to doing more to alert visiting Brits that they had to respect the law in Riga or suffer the consequences. We work closely and professionally with our committed colleagues from the Riga city authorities and police to ensure law-breakers are treated firmly but fairly.
As part of the continuing effort, I am delighted that two very senior members of the South Wales police force have visited Riga in the past few days to see the situation for themselves. They went on joint patrol with the Riga police last weekend, and gave a talk to the city police as well as to journalists. They know a lot about the problem given the hundreds of thousands of tourists/visitors/rugby and football fans who come every year to Cardiff and elsewhere. So they had knowledge and experience to share with their opposite numbers here. I am grateful to Chief Inspector Stephen Murray and Sgt Trevor Jones for coming to Riga. I also remain grateful to the Riga authorities for continuing to be such valuable colleagues. And I would like to express my greatest thanks to the Latvian police for their co-operation and for their assistance in the organisation of this very successful visit. The Welsh police commended their high professionalism.
But there is another side to the coin. The British Embassy wants to solve the problem of mis-behaving Brits who upset the poor residents of Riga and stain the reputation of my country. But my job is also to help Brits when they are in trohble through no fault of their own. In fact, it is this element which causes the real work for my consular officials. Not just the stolen passports and wallets. But small but persistent number of incidents of rip-offs and muggings, or young men honey-trapped into buying pretty young ladies very expensive drinks and then threatened with violence if they refuse to pay. Sometimes people are beaten up for the sake of it. It happened to me. And I have lost count of many occasions when taxi-drivers try to rip me off by running up bogus fares on the meter.
These incidents don’t justify bad behaviour. I don’t get the urge to urinate over a national monument as an act of revenge every time a taxi driver tries to extract an overpayment from me. But I do wonder about why the authorities responsible for licensing, in conjunction with the police and the private sector, cannot do more to tighten up regulation of consumer services such as the bars and rogue taxi drivers in the city. That way, all overseas resident and visitors to Riga can have a happy and safe stay and enjoy the treasures to be found here.
And, equally, may the thousands of Latvian visitors to the UK feel well-treated. I rejoice that everyone nowadays can enjoy affordable, easy travel and benefit from our rights of free and safe movement within the EU. That – not a handful of lager-louts - is the real story.