[Daphne – The unmistakable goatee is in the front row, sitting with his legs wide apart as so many Maltese men like to do in formal environments, to leave on-lookers with the impression that they are so well-endowed that they can’t bring their knees together.]

Seriously, though. What’s your issue with any criticism of Joseph Muscat? The man himself doesn’t seem at all ruffled by it.

What he’s being criticised for is bragging about setting up bilateral agreements on Malta’s behalf, when he’s clearly not in a position to do so. That press statement was not about playing the honest broker, but a bragfest about his political one upmanship.

I wouldn’t set great store by a ‘bilateral agreement’ fashioned by a dictatorship with someone who does not represent a state. Would you? Certainly not if it’s on the lines of those agreements that the Colonel tore up because his son Hannibal threw a tantrum at being treated like everyone else who breaks Swiss law.

And no, Joseph Muscat didn’t meet Col. Gaddafi and carefully pointed out that that wasn’t the purpose of his visit anyway. That’s disappointing. It left me wondering what our opposition leader would have worn for the publicitiy photographs in the faux bedouin tent pitched outside Gaddafi’s comfortable palace.

My second comment is that I see nothing wrong in Joe Muscat meeting Col. Ghaddafi: Let’s not be parochial even in this matter. Anything done for the benefit of Malta should be supported even if we disagree amongst ourselves.

It is not uncommon for Opposition Leaders or incumbents of one country to meet with leaders of other countries: Just see the US presidential contenders for example (except for that redneck of Sarah Palin, of course). Closer to home, when Dr. Fenech Adami was leader of the opposition in the eighties he very often mediated on behalf of Malta and met foreign leaders.

Let’s just be a bit balanced and not forget the past.