Oh look. He goes to formal dinners and he even wears black tie. So he really only wanted to insult Eddie Fenech Adami that time.

The Department of Information has released this photograph of Joseph Muscat proposing a toast at the final dinner in Sri Lanka.

Well, he is clearly at one of those formal dinners he once claimed to despise, and unless my eyes deceive me, he is also rigged up in full black tie. I can’t really see the shoes, though.

As you might recall, when he was invited – as Leader of the Opposition – to the state dinner hosted by Prime Minister Gonzi as a farewell to the outgoing President Fenech Adami, Muscat rudely turned down the invitation, saying that he can’t stand those occasions and prefers burgers.

He then went on a weekend trip to Sicily with Anglu Farrugia and their wives.

Actually, he did something far worse than turn down the invitation. He transferred it – as though this was just another fashion event – to Charles Mangion and his wife, who turned up instead.

It has become so obvious that Muscat, all the way through Opposition and his first months in government, carried on with his lifelong habit of using the calculated insult as a form of control and personal advancement.

But he’s only just beginning to find out that it doesn’t work as well when you have warmed the seat of government and your cocky arrogance and crass insults are properly seen for what they are. Mintoff could do it because he didn’t operate in the internet age and the Maltese population was phenomenally primitive. If you think it’s pretty primitive now, you should have been around back then.