Michelle Muscat: not interested if champagne and ‘fashion’ aren’t involved

Published: October 12, 2016 at 7:44pm

I have had several emails and messages from women who were at the Hilda Schembri Memorial Lecture yesterday evening. Mrs Schembri died some years ago after a long battle with breast cancer, and was the first to campaign for routine screening and for greater awareness about the disease. I remember her coming to speak to me about the subject when I was associate editor of The Malta Independent, almost 25 years ago.

An endowment has made possible an annual lecture about a related subject, which carries her name. The lecture is patronised by the First Lady (or by the President, if the President is a woman), and by the Prime Minister’s wife. Every year, Mrs Muscat turns up fantastically late and proceeds to her seat in the front row in full view of the audience and speaker.

The Hilda Schembri Memorial Lecture was held yesterday evening, and Mrs Muscat turned up so late that she missed President Coleiro’s introductory speech in its entirety. Completely unapologetic, she didn’t even frame her body language to show polite interest, but delved into her bag for her phone as soon as she sat down, and was seen by those sitting close to her to be checking Facebook.

At a certain point, she drew out what appeared to be a blanket and wrapped it around herself as though she was watching television at home on a cold winter’s night. Fortunately, there were no cosy slippers involved.

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