The Spouse and the Animals
First watch this Labour Party news video, then read the message beneath, which was sent in by one of the people who the Spouse invited to Villa Francia so that she could graciously bestow alms on them and their animals in front of the cameras.
The woman handing the Spouse those envelopes with cheques inside, so that she can in turn hand them on in true Marie Antoinette style, is her state-paid lady-in-waiting, Pamela Seychell.
The invitation on Thursday to Villa Francia was for 5pm. At 5.50 her secretary or whatever came in to tell us that there was a delay of 20 minutes because they were waiting for the media.
At 6pm two maids came in with a tray of water or squash, then another tray with one round of biscuits. We waited until 6.30 – one and a half hours – and all decided to leave. We went upstairs to tell them we were leaving, and Michelle went hysterical.
She marched into the room saying that she was waiting too. Some of us fled back downstairs, but a couple of others stayed up there and had a shouting match, saying they were due back to feed their animals. Mrs Muscat shouted back at them that she had two children waiting too.
Then she stormed downstairs to inform the rest of us (as if we hadn’t heard her already) that yes, she has two children waiting for her, but she was obliged to wait for the media because she had to show the people (“il-massa”) that she was giving the money.
One of our number said to her that it was irrelevant to us whether she had to wait too, adding that the media did not show much respect for the spouse of the Prime Minister by letting her wait for nearly two hours.
Well, the “media” finally arrived, and it was close to 7pm. And what do you know, they were a cameraman and a reporter from One News, and they had left their party leader’s wife hanging about in that embarrassing situation for two hours. So is this all the media we’ve been waiting for, somebody said.
Anyway, we trooped upstairs to the presentation room for photos and the usual bla-bla-bla. The transformation was miraculous.
Suddenly, Mrs Muscat morphed into a different person, all sweet, smiling and composed. It was painfully hilarious.
And then we each got an envelope with a “fat cheque” for €304. Father Christmas came early.