The choice of this nomination therefore seems to have eclipsed the competence of the other six female applicants for this post.

It would determine veritable justice to the present nomination if, at least, the names of the other six female contestants be publicly known so that your readership and that of The Times would indeed acclaim Judge Lofaro’s nomination ‘on competence not gender’.

[Daphne – I actually first had Giovanni Bonello down as the first ‘Malta incumbent’. In fact, if you read my article on http://www.independent.com.mt, you’ll see that he’s down as the first there. Then somebody emailed to remind me about Mifsud Bonnici – he didn’t loom large on my horizon, and I’d completely forgotten – so I changed it to ‘second’ on my blog. Then I remembered your father-in-law, Professor Cremona, and things began to seem increasingly complicated, so I checked with Judge Bonello, who said that actually, I was “almost right” when I said he was the first, in the sense that he is the first ‘Malta’ judge at the new, full-time court. The other two ‘Malta’ judges, your father-in-law and Professor Mifsud Bonnici, sat in the former court, which was part-time. And that explains the mini-confusion. In friendship, too.]

Nevertheless we have people like Margot Wallstrom, a Vice President of the European Commission, who is still asking for there to be at least one female President of the 3 EU Presidents following the Lisbon Treaty (European Council, Commission and Parliament). Maybe because there are more than 3 men who are far better qualified than herself and only Merkel comes to mind as a more suitable female candidate and she is unlikely to want the job.

(As a side note in one of your comments above you mention the European Council while you meant to refer to the Council of Europe – the two are separate bodies.)

[Daphne – Yes, I know. Unfortunately, I was quoting The Times.]

Whatever prompted him to say this? Will he discriminate against young lawyers? Does he hold a grudge against young lawyers?

Perhaps it would have been more in order had he shed some light on his sentencing policy. Will he also give suspended sentences to paedophiles, and ban publication of their names?

[Daphne – Thanks. Somebody else pointed that out and I corrected it.]

[Daphne – I do so on a regular basis, but in this case, I’m not. I’m criticising the European Council for having insisted that Malta puts a woman on the list just for the sheer hell of it. You might have been confused by the fact that Helena Dalli, in her very good article to which I posted a link, said pretty much the same thing as I did.]

[Daphne – That’s right. I’ll correct it.]