I never knew that gays dislike themselves.

So why do they flaunt it?

I thought that you were against generalising.

[Daphne – Silvio. Some. Gay. Men. Hate. The. Fact. That. They’re. Gay. And. Deal. With. It. By. Trying. To. Deal. With. Others.]

You try to say “neither looks nor money” but in actual fact you ended up saying looks AND money (a mixture of both).

[Daphne – No, Silvio. I meant that one or both may or may not be factors. Most men have neither looks nor money, and it doesn’t stop women from falling in love with them.]

You even say some un-Christian things about him, all I can say is that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

[Daphne – UnChristian, about Benito Mussolini? Please.]

One last thing. You can be assured that he was far from gay, you should have said the only guy, but I am sure you were trying to be as offensive as possible in his regard, knowing how I see those men.

[Daphne – No, Silvio. ‘The only gay in the village’ is an expression in contemporary speech. It comes from a popular British television show called Little Britain, but has entered common parlance. It doesn’t mean the only gay when used in this context. But as for Mussolini, yes: I strongly suspect that he was gay. There are all the signs. Men who are very far to the right often are: it’s a way of suppressing, controlling and denying what they fear and dislike about themselves. And he was totally camp, my god.]

He does lead a party with policies of the extreme right.

Yes I agree with you, but you must admit it helps.

It wouldn’t hurt to have a good opposition leader who does not look like an empty potato sack.

[Daphne – Yes, I admit the Tony Blair/David Cameron/Ed Miliband factor is sorely missing from Maltese politics. I’m certain their height, figure and presentation really helped their chances. But the odds aren’t good. Politicians come from the general population, and all you have to do is look around you. But if they can’t be tall and handsome, let’s at least ask for some who are clever and positive, with a good personality.]

You are too young to remeber the effect that Mussolini had on his women supporters, just seeing him would send trickles of sweat down their spine.

[Daphne – Really? He was an extremely unattractive man (photographs and film footage still survive): faqmi, short and squat, with humourless eyes, and extremely pompous. Women must have been desperate in those days. Or perhaps the real reason is that women today have more choices and more exposure to different sorts of men, and needn’t all focus, so to speak, on the only gay in the village.]

But of course women’s tastes have always been a mystery to us helpless men.

[Daphne – They’re not. Men have had it explained to them time and time again. Women go for neither looks nor money, but for a mixture of factors in which both may feature some or not at all, and in which one or both may help make the decision, but not necessarily.]

He imitates Benito. Just watch him when he’s on a podium.

To see what I mean just go to the main hall at Castile and look at the portraits of our past prime ministers.

[Daphne – My point exactly. Prime ministers and potential prime ministers are not supposed to be about sex appeal, so Labour gets it wrong with these ‘trying to be sexy’ shots. We don’t want a sexy Opposition leader. We want one with policies and brains, and some good people around him.]

Min Weber, I had noticed that.

Daphne, for ONCE I don’t agree with you.

Round face,small mouth etc have nothing to do when deciding whether a man has sex appeal or not.

It just depends on the size (dirty minded) of his WALLET.

[Daphne – That’s not sex appeal, Silvio. That’s something different.]