(Daphne – Hi, John. I’ve been writing about that side of things since day one of this crazy campaign. This was the first opportunity we’ve had to see what the new Labour leader thinks about it. The only senior politician who has been “forthright and decisive” about it is former Justice Minister, now Foreign Minister, Tonio Borg, who all but led the campaign in the beginning. Unfortunately, his forthrightness and decisiveness were on the wrong side of things as far as I’m concerned. Most MPs would be aware of the implications of what these two men are trying to do, but one of the men is a US-style ‘browbeat-the-customer’ salesman who runs a marketing consultancy, and who has – very successfully at first – portrayed his mission as the saving of babies from their crazy mothers. Having been browbeaten by him – he moved smoothly from sucking up to persuasion to threats – I know just how difficult he would have been to beat off. MPs would have felt pressured into signing the petition because they would have thought that public opinion was behind Gift of Life, and they wouldn’t have wanted to be seen as pro-abortion. Interestingly, you might have noticed that the ‘summer break’ Gift of Life unwisely took has left the field wide open for the growth of resentment towards them. If you take a look at the comments posted below the Gift of Life stories on http://www.timesofmalta.com (there was one last Monday and another one today, I believe) you’ll see a preponderance of opinion against Gift of Life’s aims.)

Really, it sounds a little unfathomable to me. Why did he find it crucial to resort to others’ perspectives? Doesn’t he have a perspective of his own?