[Daphne – Haven’t they put you in some wax museum yet? I can’t believe you’re still around sticking up for Labour. Here you are, on your fourth Labour leader and saying the same things about Labour that you were saying back in the 1970s on the Letters to the Editor page in The Times. If the Labour Party had a Ball-Breakers Hall of Fame, you’d be in it.]

Does he really not see the amorality in his statement?

[Daphne – Not really, no. There would be no secrets because nobody would be interested in finding out to satisfy their own curiosity. Malice and prurience are generated by, among other things, a desire to see others of whom we are envious (people with money and possessions, boys who went to St Edward’s College, people who live in Sliema, that kind of thing) brought low and into suffering. Nobody is envious of the sort of people you cite as an example, hence the lack of curiosity or desire to see pain.]

I think that this story has captivated people’s imagination because it’s difficult to see why two people who don’t know one another from Adam should end up killing each other with steak knives on new year’s day.

Had the people involved been from backgrounds other than their real ones the episode would have generated the same interest, I’m sure.

[Daphne – You are wrong to assume that they didn’t know each other. I am not saying here that they did know each other, just that the act of assumption, when you don’t have the facts or evidence, is wrong.]

The Qormi killing was quite “straightforward”. There wasn’t anything about which to speculate.

What has turned this into a circus is precisely the absence of verifiable – or verified – good quality information.

Well done, Mr Mangani. There are still a few decent people around.

I may not tick all boxes of decent, but I have decided to do so.

I took it a step further and banned all office discussion about the case.

As far as Matthew Vella is concerned, one cannot expect better from people such as he, who, like their employers, are unable to understand basic values.

Then the PBS news said it was not a burglary – at last, some informed news.

Daphne, I would too prefer silence in these cases but hope not only in this one but in all cases where we are stepping a bit too high on peoples emotions especially when someone loses his life.

Furthermore I have seen comments by famiy memebrs on the media and they are adding to the speculation. They must first give an example.

About a week ago timesofmalta.com carried an article about a Maltese short Film which won a prestigious award in New York. Obviously this was reported in a few minutes on One News and Malta Today. I tried to check on the internet on this famous award and have found nothing except in a very second-class site.

Journalists shoudl check thier sources first as today on the internet you can easily check the truth.

This is just a small example as many others are available on certain news items that are given as fact but they are just mere wishful thinking.

This idea of grandeur is a bit of Maltese folklore but at least we must report the truth and not speculate.

Gossip on the Qormi case, Daphne? Why pray? The facts were out the very same day!

[Daphne – No, they were not. But that wasn’t my point.]

I take it you mean the family, and not the families.

Those comments were posted on Malta Today