As much as I can empathise with that, it should make you question his credentials for the post. What is he going to do in bilateral meetings on immigration with his Italian counterpart?

Will he feel uncomfortable if the meeting overruns and he has to get out of his comfort zone? Will he buckle under the pressure and call off the meeting until he regains his composure?

Besides, what is this ‘strain of having to defend himself’ you speak of? He’s a lawyer, for crying out loud!

[Daphne – You quite clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. There is the world of difference between talking in the course of your work and being forced to defend yourself after a massive, sustained and immoral onslaught. People who have never been subjected to that kind of onslaught have no idea what it means. I live with it, and so can empathise with the home affairs minister. You, on the other hand, are so frightened of being subjected to unwanted attention that you don’t even use your real name for an innocuous comment, and yet you dare to pass judgement on others who endure things which you will never know or have the guts to face.]

Others like Carm Mifsud Bonnici, Jason Azzopardi, Joe Cassar, and Mario de Marco sound so lucid, calm and in control. I could vote for them on their speaking manner alone – because, as the saying goes, how you do something is how you do everything.

He got away with just four hits.

Mantegna’s version in the Franchetti collection got around twenty.

The latter is more Franco.

“Mifsud Bonnici replies to Labour motion: ‘My relentless work drove me to illness'”

“11:36 Mifsud Bonnici sounds exasperated in his impassioned chronicle of his achievements in the home affairs and justice portfolio, exhaling a ‘Marija Santissima’ as he stops for a breather and asks for a coffee.'”

If you had to use the same yardstick, we have another one who cannot stand the heat. Why not call a spade a spade?

Source: http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/LIVE-Carm-Mifsud-Bonnici-replies-to-Labour-motion-20120530

[Daphne – Carm Mifsud Bonnici is extremely calm, silent and sensible. What you have there is a usually silent and quite private person being subjected to the strain of having to defend himself. Not everyone can carry it off. When you are used to keeping your counsel, the strain of talking for a long time is unfamiliar and can be overwhelming. Franco does not have this problem. I understand how Mifsud Bonnici feels because I don’t talk much either, and hate it.]