That's what you get for being "prudent"…

Muammar Gaddafi gave a much publicised speech yesterday, in which he vowed never to leave Tripoli, dead or alive – not that he has much control over either at this stage.

It was his version of ‘we shall fight them on the beaches…we shall never surrender’. He was rather more coherent than he usually is, though he appeared completely unaware that the Libyans whose morale and fighting spirit his words were meant to lift are instead enjoying every minute of his suffering and not rallying behind him.

It’s strange how the Maltese media missed that speech (too busy with Edwin’s conscience, I imagine) because Prudent Malta came in for a star mention.

“Tripoli has been attacked many times in the past, by the Byzantines, Spanish, Romans, Italians and Malta.”

– Muammar Gaddafi, 7 June 2011

I’m thinking all that prudence really didn’t pay off. We should have had that parliamentary debate about Libya, after all, dammit. John Dalli, if he can be distracted from his Spanish cucumbers for half a minute, must be distraught.

And did anyone out there hear him speak about the subject of vegetables in Strasbourg (I think) yesterday? EXCRUCIATING. MY GOD. Shame nobody’s conscience seems to tell them to get elocution lessons and instruction in proper diction.

“…ba’akterjologika’al infaction … ess off now…”.

Maaaaaa. X’inkwiet. Can’t his assistant Harry Vassallo pin him into a corner and do a Henry Higgins on him, for heaven’s sake?

And just imagine what went on behind the scenes.

“Hjara x’il-ozbricc jghidula bl-Ingliz, John?”

“Cook emberRRRR.”

I don’t know how somebody with sensibilities as finely tuned as Harry’s can stand it without the daily desire to punch a window-pane. His snob meter must be running on red alert.

And it comes as no surprise to know that Malta’s diplomatic mission to Benghazi was actually a thinly disguised business delegation, spurred on by company executives who need new ‘parrini’ there, now that their ‘parrini’ in Tripoli have expired. John Dalli must be biting his clenched fists in frustration as he gets stuck in Strasbourg talking about cook-embers while others meet the new movers and shakers and get in first.

Nothing wrong in that; it makes sense. But it would have been in much better taste to let the war stop first and to make this first visit to Benghazi purely a gesture of solidarity and not a hunting trip.

William Hague has just gone to Benghazi, announcing that the purpose of his visit was “to show support for the Libyan people and for the National Transitional Council”.

I find it significant that our own delegation was led by a diplomat rather than the foreign minister. Perhaps Tonio Borg thinks he is more important than William Hague, or maybe his conscience strapped him to his seat, wagged a finger in his face and said: “You mustn’t go, Tonio Borg. It wouldn’t be prudent.”

Instead he chatted to Qatar’s foreign minister about, to quote The Times, “the possibility of a hospital being set up in Malta to treat the wounded from Libya….a separate building may be identified in Malta and equipped by Qatar to treat the Libyan patients.”

Hmmm. Very practical. By the time it’s all done and dusted, there will be no wounded left to treat.

The Times also reported: “(Tonio Borg) stressed that the patients would then return to Libya.” You know, just in case any other right-wing bigots run away with the idea that he’s thinking of letting them stay and become a burden on the Maltese conscience.

The hospital, the foreign minister said, “would be part of Malta’s humanitarian aid to Libya”.

Come again? Three months into the war and he’s still talking about the humanitarian aid Malta might give, while the voluntary organisations and NGOs have been hard at it. Qatar turns the building into a hospital and somehow it becomes ‘Malta’s humanitarian aid’.

And this is quite apart from the fact that, according to the foreign minister, this new hospital will be set up to avoid putting ‘stress’ on Mater Dei. The doctors, nurses, surgeons and assorted paramedics, apparently, one assumes, are to be shipped in by Qatar too, along with the equipment – but ah, we hadn’t thought of that.

Meanwhile, William Hague has told the British parliament – where they discuss such matters instead of fixating on their conscience – that there are now 50 strikes a day on Tripoli, and that there have been 10,000 sorties since 31 March.

Bloody good thing Lutherans and Protestants, unlike Catholics, don’t have consciences, because otherwise the whole of Europe would be on the fence with a post up its butt, talking about prudence. Sarkozy? Doesn’t count as a Catholic: he’s been divorced twice, so obviously has no conscience either.