Judge Wenzu and Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela fly to Rome

Wenzu Mintoff, appointed judge by the Labour government

Wenzu Mintoff’s closest friend, Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela

Judge Wenzu Mintoff flew to Rome on KM612 this morning. Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela was on the same flight.

They made a point of not sitting together, in that way people do when they are having an affair and flying out together but don’t want anyone to notice – except, of course, that this only makes it more obvious to those in the know.

(For those a bit slow on the uptake, I’m not saying here that they are having an affair – those two are resolutely heterosexual even if completely non-fanciable – but explaining what I mean about how people who don’t want it to be known that they are travelling together sometimes making it more obvious by staying apart.)

Wenzu Mintoff and Toni Abela have been an item as inseparable friends and political collaborators for more years than I care to remember. They had set up Alternattiva Demokratika together around 25 years ago. It’s the reason Toni Abela, Judge Wenzu and Malta Today owner Saviour Balzan are so wrapped up in each other – the reason why you have an anomalous situation in which the deputy leader of the Labour Party is Malta Today’s lawyer and also replaced Wenzu Mintoff as editor of the Labour Party newspaper KullHadd.

What are they doing in Rome, I wonder.