It’s arguable whether or not we’d have had bombs falling on us and to what extent, had we been under the Italians.

But I suspect large numbers of us might have ended up in Auschwitz, along with the other so-called untermensch. So, notwithstanding my dislike for the Constitutional Party, no thank you, Bob.

That doesn’t mean that the British and even worse the local Pharisees didn’t behave horribly towards their Maltese brothers, whose only guilt, for the most part, was to want independence.

But on balance it takes a fool to deny that of all the outcomes, other than the rise of Mintoff, we probably came away with the least destructive of WWII options. Ruling out a global outburst of brotherly love, of course.

In terms of 20th century disasters for Malta, I’m still not sure which was the worst of the Spanish influenza, WWII and Mintoff. I’d rule out the flu but I’m not sure about which of the others to pick.

We’ll see. Although WWII’s effect is now limited to the Royal Opera House memorial, the Mintoff effect is still in action, as seen in parliament this week.

[Daphne – Without 160 years of British rule, we’d have been a version of Sicily, Never Again, and good luck with that. It’s bad enough as it is already, despite those 160 years of British rule and British structures and systems. Imagine if it had never happened. Even the idea of this blog would be alien, and what language would it have been in – Italian? Maltese? Really useful on the internet.]

If we were under Italy, Malta would have been the target of American B17 bombers based in Northwest Africa.

Capable of flying to target in major formations, protected by long range fighters, the bombing would have been incessant. This would have led to the Germans taking over with Grand Harbour suffering the same fate as Cassino or even worse Dresden.

And we’d have been part of the Vichy regime anyway.

If we were under Italy we would have been firstly taken over by Nazi Germany and subsequently blown out of the Med by Eisenhower.

Bob, you would not even be around to write such nonsense.

And, luckily, I would not be here to read it.

Thank you, Daphne.

The Maltese present there were looking for a way of freeing Malta from British occupation. It was the fault of Britain that we were dragged into the war and were so heavily bombarded. If we were under Italy we would not have got a single bomb. But history will always be written by the victors.

[Daphne – Don’t come in here and talk such bollocks. I find it deeply offensive and insulting. I would rather contend with 900 Mintoffiani than with one person who says this sort of pig-ignorant thing. ]

“Mussolini ha paura del Fuehrer”.

He was only trying to save his country and himself by riding on the back of the tiger in the hope that they would be the last to get eaten.

Neville Chamberlain had tried the same tactic exactly two years previously.

It was only thanks to the indomitable British spirit led by the Spirit of Chartwell (what an apt name for the jubilee royal barge) that the world was saved.

Never in the field of human conflict…….

He abused history by forgetting that Malta had been crucial in the unification of Italy, serving as a refuge for revolutionaries from the south exiled by the Bourbons, who were alongside the French, at war with the Britain. Crispi spent nearly two years in Tarxien, once visited by Garibaldi himself.

A liberal democrat in the early years, he became a controversial figure once elected prime minister. Crispi’s considered by detractors as Mussolini’s inspiration, Irredentismo being his idea.

History can be uncanny at times.

A true man hates no one.

Napoleon Buonaparte.

It’s even more ironical that, when this happened, it was the Nationalists, under Fenech Adami, who took on the role of antifascists.

I don’t think this is good PR from the Nationalist Party, it opens the door for ridicule. Carm Mifsud Bonnici is an adult and can handle the situation, I suppose.