Dictators are usually rather attached to their mothers.

It has long clicked with me, Daphne. But I am not allowed to state that Mintoff was gay, because 1) either Malta’s libel laws will come down upon me like a ton of bricks or 2) no one will listen or 3) no one will publish the statement because the country’s media are sanitised to surgical standard.

Gaddafi was also renowned for having boy sex slaves.

I just thought I’d help my fellow countrymen come to terms with a gay despot.

[Daphne – H.P., hasn’t it clicked with you yet that most of the world’s dictators were homosexual or bisexual and going for the macho look?]

The man next to il-Guy looks tiny bit like Marc Bolan but if Dom liked budgies in Speedos then he would have loved the Spinal Tap guys with the legendary “armadillos in their trousers”.

Dom’s love would have been blues guitarist Robben Ford who happens to look a lot like John Attard Montalto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsvSVtXRu7A

[Daphne – He does, yes, but with straight hair. And he’s way too old.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OxYnqfi2I

[Daphne – No, that’s the wrong aesthetic. It’s the late 1960s/early 1970s look you want, not the late 1970s/1980s: girly look but straight and bad boy. http://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/marc-bolan-resize-2.jpg Remind you of anyone in the photo up there?]

Oh yes, let’s thank Joseph for “creating a liberal country”! Xejn ma jonqosna.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120824/opinion/The-Mintoff-that-I-hugged.434157

“He asked me if I liked to swim and walk. The next day we went on our first swimming trip. On that occasion, he warned me that I had to be careful. If I were to become his friend, I would become a political target. “I’ve always wanted to be your friend,” I said. “I choose friendship.”

From that point, and for the next 16 years or so, I met him at least once a week (except during my 22-month stint as minister). We had a special rapport that, perhaps, can only exist when two men are almost 40 years apart in age and complete opposites in several respects.

He would often ask me to accompany him on trips abroad. I made him laugh, lent a non-judgmental ear to some of his confidential reminiscences, and he enjoyed grumbling that he had to take care of me when it should have been the opposite.”