Mannix, imagine talking innocently in the street when someone you do not know stops next to you to listen in.

Would that fail to bother you, on the basis that you have nothing to hide?

When one thinks about it, how difficult would it really be to obtain a post dated warrant from a Judge if it were really necessary in a country where the system appears to cover up for an Ex-EU Commissioner or delay the impeachment of a Judge, were government contracts are concealed and bribery is not considered corruption in some circumstances and absolved.

Joseph Muscat promised a sway from the past easily drawing massive support to his side. Who could really blame a population thirsty for change which had had enough of a political system where righteousness which had begun to fail with the start of Lawrence Gonzi’s second term in office took a definitive plunge and opened vast territories for Joseph Muscat to prospect in, something he did with great relish and astounding success.

Most of those thirty-six thousand odd who shifted sides weren’t after MLP iced buns they were after distancing themselves from the stale buns within the PN. It would therefore be extremely inappropriate for the PN to taunt them by reminding them that while others are gorging themselves to death on Muscat’s handouts they have received nothing in exchange for their vote. They wanted nothing but change. Whether they got that or not is different issue.

If in four years time, should the PN really manage to change from the ground up and should Joseph Muscat fail to deliver then there is a serious chance that many of them will shift once more but they will only do that if Simon Busuttil strives to inspire confidence, give serious thought to issues like rampant phone and internet tapping by the government for example, and manages to attract new faces to replace the old.

“The Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the 3,773 requests referred to by the Guardian referred in their majority to police investigation requests relating to crimes. Only a very small number were requested by the Security Services.”

Except those 3,773 legitimate requests in the course of police investigations aren’t the real issue here, are they?

Can the Ministry of Amphibians and Princes-in-Waiting confirm or deny the existence of the Secret Service’s monitoring and unfettered access to all means of communications in real-time?

I don’t think it’s ‘for the sheer hell of it’. Information other than that required for criminal proceedings could easily be used to harass an innocent person on political grounds, one example being whether one gets a promotion or not, or any other state service for that matter.