the number is descending like everyone’s patience / support. First slowly (3 digits at a time) then in 2’s (picking up speed) until he’s finally blown into oblivion with a bang!

Of course we can. It indicates a person on a steady decline.

Sure there’s someone else behind this.

Franco Debono acted in a way to belittle Lou Bondi, it is clear.

He came across as a bully.

He raised his voice repeatedly during the programme.

He put his mobile there on the table, and he left it on and kept checking it, and it was ringing. What bad manners: insolent not just to his host, but to the many people watching the programme.

I’ve come across a few personalities like this.

tohrog il-velenu xoghlok daphne? ax hlief velenu u attakki personali ma taghmilx purcinella.

[Daphne – He gives it out himself, sweetheart, on his website. http://www.francodebono.info/ ]

Ghal grazzja tal-argument halli nghidu li ghandek ragun. Xorta jibqa l-fatt li Debono mhux qieghed jagixxi sewwa. Sena ohra kienet tasal l-elezzjoni u kien jiddeciedi jekk jergax johrog mal-Partit Nazzjonalista u l-poplu jiddeciedi wkoll lill min irid jiggvernah.

Lili mistoqsija wahda wegibni. Ghalfejn irid iwaqqa l-gvern u ghalfejn issa? Wisq nibza li r-raguni VERA jafha biss Debono u xi ftit persuni ohra.

Jiena qed nistenna wkoll li kemm l-Opposizzjoni u anke l-President jgharfu jiddeciedu ghal-gid tal-pajjiz u jaghtu nifs qabel tigi elezzjoni anke akkost li tinghata data tal-elezzjoni ghal-iktar tard din is-sena imma mhux immedjatament.

Jien moralment konvinta li l-anqas Joseph Muscat ma jixtieq elezzjoni immedjata u dan ghal hafna ragunijiet.

Even if someone’s number is in the phone book, supplying it here and inciting people to call him is harassment. As you can see above, people took your headline literally.

[Daphne – If you want his address and email too, here they are: http://www.francodebono.info/ . Click on the Contact section and you have everything you need just in case, as he himself puts it in his abysmal English, ‘you require to contact Franco’.]

It’s true I wasn’t taught from an early age that swearing in public shows good breeding. You’ve certainly put me in my place on that account.

[Daphne – It doesn’t SHOW good breeding. Lots of well bred people don’t swear. But lots of others do. It tends to be those who are afraid of being thought ‘hamalli’, to use their terminology, who don’t swear only because they’re afraid that’s what people will think of them. Of course, there are different sorts of swear-words and there is also a sense of the appropriate context in which to swear and how to do it. But as I said, these are all things one learns growing up and it’s hard to teach them at this stage. Swearing is like humour, I’m afraid. It should also be tinged with humour as otherwise it can appear savage. I find it impossible to laugh at anything that is sold as humour on Maltese television, for instance.]

I’m sorry to hear that this is your work. It must be exhausting to be meanspirited for a living.

[Daphne – Actually, that’s not my work. You clearly come from a different cultural background and just don’t get it. Stick to Malta Today. It’s half-owned by somebody from my exact cultural background (not Saviour, I hasten to add) but he has clearly decided to reach a very different sort of audience. It’s the internet, it’s free and available to all, but like everything else it has market segments and audiences. This is not meant for you and you are unhappy with it, so move on to something more satisfying. Your real problem, I suspect, is that you are fairly intelligent, have acquired the language and some education, and so feel yourself alien to the kind of discourse and communication on sites like maltatoday and maltastar, yet at the same time you have not learned the subtleties (which are not subtle at all to me and others, but anyway) which distinguish mean-spiritedness from the satirical mockery of very public figures. Mean-spiritedness, for example, is getting two cocks to fight each other to shreds, and not writing that the man who is holding Malta hostage used to do that.]

There is only one advertisement on this blog, so the income must be minimal.

[Daphne – I do not take advertisements, What. That is a favour to a friend. I will, however, be taking advertisements shortly because I am under heavy pressure to do so from advertising agencies. However, it is not as simple as that because there is a considerable amount of administration involved.]

Writing a weekly comment for the Independent probably wouldn’t pay the bills of a ‘well bred’ lady either. I wonder who might pay you to systematically insult and harass into madness and resignation every opponent of the Nationalist government.

[Daphne – I have a magazine business, What. But then you are the sort who wouldn’t have noticed. I also have a husband and my sons are all financially independent. You reveal your social origins when you assume that well bred women have lots of bills. The opposite is true. Well bred women are raised with the concept of thrift. ]