And pigs will fly, Not quite. I admire your idealism, but I have a very vivid memory of John Dalli’s performance as EU Commissioner.

And the ample precedents of weak Commissioners whose performance never improved and whose staff were tainted by the same brush.

Or of Commissioners who picked people outside their party and did well. There must be plenty of disappointed people (not necessarily Maltese) who are passionate about Commissioner Vella’s portfolio and applied because they considered that the opportunities outweighed the disadvantages. Politics and idealism work together.

The latter before the former. All decisions were clearly signed off at Castille not Zurrieq.

[Daphne – The logic is right there. If a person is handpicked for a job like that, and by a government that hasn’t made a single appointment which isn’t the result of cronyism, the obvious follows. Please rest assured that in no way am I saying here that Andrew Bianco is not fit for the job. There is every indication that he is. I am saying something else entirely, that he is politically a person of trust to Karmenu Vella and the Labour government at home in Malta.]

Not quite, that’s a very idealistic picture you painted there. Sure, a cabinet is essential to the work of the Commissioner.

But that does not make me want to be a member of Vella’s cabinet.

The truth is that as member of the Cabinet of that Commissioner, you should first firmly believe in his ability to deliver, and secondly abide by whatever policy or line he instructs you to take, and thirdly that he will act in line with Article 15 TEU.

Now, couple Vella’s colourful history with his lacklustre performance during the EP hearings, and I dare say one would be mad to want to form part of his Cabinet.

No, Daphne, you are jumping to conclusions.

[Daphne – I am not, for the simple reason that I have no reason to or interest in doing so. I am simply stating a fact. Posh person = PN supporter is a very stupid mistake too many people make, along with taking things at face value and not being alert to telling information. Andrew’s mother comes from a Labour background and has simply migrated back to Labour. She was among the incoming government’s first rash of appointees, and that alone should have told you something. Karmenu Vella has just two Maltese people in his cabinet when he should have had around nine. That means beyond doubt that the two were specifically handpicked from among very many Maltese who could have done the job. The reasons for the handpicking, it follows, are other than mere merit. I do not wish to go into this at all; it is just that people’s wilfil blindness irritates me immensely.]

[Daphne – I don’t know her from Adam. All I know is that she’s Narcy Calamatta’s daughter, so we’re talking big-time Labour here and she was promoted under a Nationalist government.]

[Daphne – I think you will find that Andrew Bianco was handpicked for his political sympathies, just as his mother Ruth Bianco was for one of this government’s first culture councils or whatever. Nobody is paying anybody back: they are persons of trust to the Labour government, for reasons that should be obvious. When Andrew Bianco worked for the perm rep, however, that would have been a meritocratic appointment – but Labour doesn’t operate like that. The merit is incidental and not the main thing.]