Thank you for raising the point, and I raise you one (a glass. What were you thinking?) for refusing to bow to the bestial standards of Maltese sartorialism.

When you look at photographs of the Raj, and the North-West Frontier, and Uganda and other infernally hot places, and see those civil servants impeccably turned out in suits, there’s no excuse for modern man. If they did it, so can we.

The secret to beating the heat is the fabric. Linen is cool works well, but it creases. Fine wool works just as well, and is just as cool. And for the discerning tropical gentleman, a blend of fine wool and silk. A light-coloured suit reflects the heat, and the ladies love it, because you stand out from the sea of standard-issue, black-suited lawyers.

I’ve always been partial to a cravat. If Richard England can pull it off, why should I deny myself the pleasure?

Norman Lowell does it all wrong, wrapping a tie around his throat, scarf-like. Rather baffling. I mean the man’s been to Rhodesia when it was still Rhodesia. Didn’t he learn anything?

And a hat. Indispensable. That’s the one item that really keeps you cool, and looking cool if I may borrow a modern and progressive idiom. For vertically-challenged barstewards like me, trilbies work better than Panamas, which tend to have huge brims. A good one though, not those souvenir of Malta, Chinese paper imitations that go limp as soon as you break a sweat.

That, and plenty of Pimm’s. That’s your summer survival kit.

Note the diagonal sweat band from the seat belt across the T-shirt in the top photo.

Nesa l-erkondixin mitfi.

Daphne, that is a really good point. Style and decorum should be retained. Last week I had an errand to run in a shop in Merchants Street and so I had to cross over from Gozo.

As I was dressing, my wife advised me that considering the expected heat wave temperatures I, should put on a shorts, something which I did. But after a look at the mirror and a thoughtful moment I queried: what if I have to pass through Republic Street and met someone who I knew? I would feel bad.

So I immediately put on clothes which while feeling cool were more appropriate to my age and figure, as well as my status in life. Well I am just a sixty year old head of school coming from a lowly worker family. My mother had no education to speak of, because she was kept at home to help out. But her advice and her hands-on practice was that from day 1 after my birth I was always kept prim and proper in dress besides other things. Unfortunately I did not make it to the Speaker’s chair.

Mbaghad taparsi dahal faccata.

Well, thoughts are divided on whether there is something he can do about it.

Disappointments are often flushed down in proportionate quantity and quality choice.

He’d have to tackle the disappointment issues first, and I don’t see that happening.

Same with Meril Weez and Joseph Muscat.

There’s no internal equilibrium.

Perhaps they’re scripting the results for the next electoral observation missions.