He’s got rather a lot of meat on his bones for a fossil.

Oh yes you can: the Golden Years. There are tens of thousands of traumatised survivors to give testimony to that.

I disagree with many laws but I understand that the rule of law must be respected, especially the constitution. Tough, Baxxter, you need 2/3 of the House to agree with you. Live with it.

Having said that, one thing I’m certainly not is a legalistic pedant. I am for anything that promotes peace and understanding. I especially detest war as a racket – and war IS a racket, as General Smedley Butler once famously said.

He who fights by the sword, dies by the sword. The policies we implement today will define our future. Mintoff’s peace-promoting mission was a good cause, but it had to be nurtured, something Fenech Adami failed to do since all he could figure out were the gates of Babel, especially when Francis Fukuyama told him ‘history had ended’.

The ousting of Gaddafi does not have to make us sacrifice what’s left of our anti-military clause. There’s Sicily, there are aircraft carriers and there is the British base in Cyprus for that. Malta’s role is in the humanitarian field. We cannot do both.

…the way Joseph Muscat, then a Super One reporter, shouted at Eddie Fenech Adami

Ms.Caruana Galizia, do NOT bet your life or bottom dollar on that. Joey probably got elected leader BECAUSE of that. It is the way this sort of people think. The more they scream and hurl insults, the more they are adulated.

[Daphne – Doubtless, but he galvanised the rest to vote against Labour.]

Why cannot he understand that Malta is not a whore?

Because I’m wary of “crusader” imagery. God knows I have to fight hard against it even among historians.

I mean that changing the constitution was “hopeless”.

But really, with some of you I’m not sure if you agree with the neutrality clause, or if you disagree but still think it should be respected to the letter because it’s the law.

I’ve said time and again that I disagree with the clause. That part of the constitution should be blank. And we should participate in military coalitions as we see fit. After all, we already have: Georgia and, anti-piracy missions in the Indian Ocean. (OK there were those lorries carrying baby food driven into Bosnia, but that doesn’t count).

On the question of the no-fly zone, I don’t expect Malta to be used as a base. We have neither the infrastructure nor the experience. But if Sicily is used, we’ll have to get used to having armed aircraft flying through our airspace. No phone calls to Gaddafi this time, I hope.

Maybe they will soon resurrect that request for the state financing of the political parties, then.

Daphne, the problem is that, more often than not, he loses his cool quite easily and the tenor of his questions is quite different when it comes to interviewing subjects pertaining to the other side of his political spectrum.

I’ll avoid using the word ‘bigot’ and try to be more politically correct by saying that consistency is surely not a virtue he cultivates.

[Daphne – Would those other interviewees also be the prime minister? No. Prime ministers have special status as interviewees, with a degree of politeness reserved for the fact that they represent the government. You will notice how polite those interviewers were even to Gaddafi in his last stand. Bondi handles the leader of the opposition the same way and for the same reason. With politicians who do not have a constitutional role, one can be more familiar in one’s approach. It is, however, unwise to adopt a harassment approach to questioning a prime minister or president or even opposition leader: it comes across as gauche. I have no doubt that the way Joseph Muscat, then a Super One reporter, shouted at Eddie Fenech Adami in one of the last political broadcasts before the EU referendum (or subsequent general election) contributed in no small part to the failure of his party at the polls.]