Drake – bring her home from the EU.

Baxxter I am not in favour of change for the sake of change, but JM cannot relate to women, so the best way to rattle him would be to put a strong woman at the helm. What about Joanna Drake?

Simon Busuttil needs a lesson in Maltese politicking. This isn’t the EU parliament, with its freshly-showered, bright-skinned, courteous, well-meaning bureaucrats from Mitteleuropa.

Labour is the not a “colleague” with whom “we hope to work together in the country’s interest”. Labour is the enemy.

Repeat: Labour is the enemy.

They hate Simon Busuttil and want his head on a stick. He is the Gizwita mnezza, dak l-imnejjek, dak tal-burden sharing, dak il-pastizz tal-haxu.

When facing that mindset, you fight back, and you fight dirty.

the same way he set up Franco Debono within PN

I believe that the right choice is Simon Busuttil.

He will however need to pep up his public and general communication skills. He will also need to put together a top team of people under 35 with fresh ideas together with a top of the crop marketing team. This last one is quite a challenge with empty coffers.

I think this together with the inevitable Labour faux pas and unkept pre-election promises made to all and sundry could translate into a chance for the Nationalist Party in five years’ time.

Why do people always bring up Margaret Thatcher when we talk about women in politics? For every Thatcher – and the jury is still out on her – I can find you a Marcos. Or a Kirchner. Or an Agatha Barbara.

Women do have a je ne sais quoi, but I’d rather not specify in which field.

I hope that Raymond Bugeja is not a setup via our Joseph. PN be warned.

What the PN certainly does not need is some self-proclaimed “salvatur” being parachuted in. If Mr Bugeja wants to become the party’s leader he should first work within the party and understand the way it works and the people working in it. Simon Busuttil is the perfect candidate – he knows the party, has worked in it and for it but is still fresh blood in the context of Maltese politics.

Raymond Bugeja spoke to Muscat about possible opportunities for him with the Labour Party. If he were truly committed to the PN’s values and principles, he wouldn’t have done that. He also said that he wants to stay with the PN because it is his ‘tradition’ and his ‘family’. Party leaders don’t talk or think that way: it’s about ideology, principles, shared values, beliefs, policies and attitude.

It’s significant that the PN has financial problems despite being in government for so long. This is something Labour cannot understand: they only had such problems when they could no longer plunder the country to enrich their party (and themselves).