Perhaps when he resigns after the powerhouse flop Joseph will join the PN as a born again evangelist. Christianity, after all, originated in Burmarrad almost 2000 years back.

Very useful, thank you. Not least since Joseph Muscat specialises in interweaving biography (with all its requisite fantasy) and party programmes. There’s a sense in which ‘Malta taghna lkoll’ hinges on Muscat’s ‘mixed upbringing’ narratives.

Now where did I leave my anorak?

[Daphne – What is most offensive and wrong-headed about this ‘mixed upbringing’ narrative is that it puts both parties on an equal moral and political plane (to say nothing of competence), making it appear as though whether one chooses the one or the other has no bearing on one’s judgement or analytical skills. If we are going to speak of upbringing and family political background, I grew up in an extended family of very committed Stricklandjani (my paternal grandfather was an activist and my maternal uncle a candidate). That meant polar political opposition to the Nationalist Party and what it stood for in those days. But when the time came to take a rational decision, that rational decision was clear: Labour was not even an option, and the Nationalist Party had all the right policies and the proper attitude.]

[Daphne – Yes. I’ve asked that question myself. What makes it more pertinent is the fact that it is his FATHER who is Labour and his mother’s family Nationalist (as they tend to be round these parts). In the normal course of things, it is the mother who has the most influence in shaping her children’s outlook, especially when it is an only child (particularly son). But he seems to have been completely taken over by his father and paternal grandmother, the Mintoffjani side of the family. This is very unusual. Take Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, for example, who grew up in the reverse situation: his mother is Labour and his father Nationalist. His mother’s family shaped his politics even as he aligned himself to the Nationalist Party, he married two Labour women in succession, and the essential configurement of his Labour hardwiring eventually won out. He speaks and thinks Labour and that was the root cause of his problems with the PN.

It is the same with Jesmond Mugliett. His mother is Labour. His maternal uncle is a Labour councillor in Marsascala. Eventually, his Labour hardwiring won out and put him at odds with his own party. But Muscat hasn’t been influenced by his mother or her family at all. If he were, he wouldn’t have been a Super One foot-soldier from the age of 18.]

So right about a DNA tan-n**k.

In an international book on Maltese football a foreign coach says that when one asks a Maltese to run 100 metres he will find a way of running 99.

That is the general mentality unfortunately – fotti ir-regina when we’ve ceased to be a colony for decades now.

What’s more in this same book a present member of parliament happily states he received kick-backs to pay players. This same MP is once again being allowed to contest the coming elections.

Where does that leave one?

You raise an important point.

Joseph Muscat says “L-aqwa fl-Ewropa.”

I am surprised that nobody has asked him yet what he means by this statement.

Let us not underestimate that ‘Ewropa’ and ‘Unjoni Ewropeja’ are not the same.

Joseph Muscat’s statement can mean that it would be best for us to be part of Europe (l-aqwa fl-Ewropa), but it is not necessarily meaning that we will be the best in the EU.

More ‘hawwadni ha nifhem.’ Where are our journalists?

Oh, but Joseph said that Labour is still the underdog.

You said it! Harry, look, she said it!

Iva, Daphne, ghandna genes tan-nejk. Naqbel. Imma jghiduli li rrid inkun patriott. Anzi kien il-patriottizmu sfrenat li fottiena.