In the normal civilized world, private industry will not touch a disgraced politician with a ten-foot pole.

But then how can one describe Joe Muscat or Manwel Mallia as ‘normal’?

He is a spoiled boy in a man’s job. He didn’t really want to be prime minister. He wanted to be a celebrity, hang out with important people and pose in family photos alongside David Cameron.

It does mean that next time their vote will go to where it belongs. So my advice: beware of switchers.

If a deal had been reached, then Mallia would have done the honourable thing, and saved his own and the Prime Minister’s face. Not that these contracting parties are honest people, but it is the appearance that counts.

So I think that the Prime Minister was actually admitting failure in his negotiations with Mallia. Mallia had not accepted anything, and did not resign. He was probably not even negotiating with the Prime Minister any more on Tuesday.

Since the Prime Minister had to proceed to fire him in order to appoint Carmelo Abela and appear not weak with the public, Muscat had to resort to renew his offer to Mallia through the media to try to calm him down.

But I am sure Mallia will not be calming down. How can a criminal lawyer like Mallia, with such a long legal career in which he saved so many criminals from serving time behind bars, accept being sentenced to oblivion by an incompetent prime minister when he faces his first test in the political dock?

If Mallia wants the truth to come out as a way of taking revenge against the prime minister, he should tell Sheehan to dismiss his present lawyers and appoint him as defence lawyer. Then he can call all witnesses he likes and question them mercilessly.

[Daphne – He may now be just an ordinary backbencher, but this does not mean he is free to defend Sheehan. He is a key witness in the case, which precludes him from doing so.]

[Daphne – I really don’t think that whatever it is has to do with sex. Muscat does not strike me as somebody with anything going on in that department, either one way or another. Muscat is a man who is motivated by money and power in substitute of sex. So whatever it is that Mallia has on Muscat is going to have its roots in money and power and not in sex. I would say that Mallia knows the source of some key Labour Party funding and some not quite savoury arrangement that helped put Muscat in power.]

The contents of the Henley contract are the recent goods.

The contents of the pre-election China agreement are the older goods.

At the moment of his switch, much was being discovered as to financing channels.

Mallia would have been the contract drafter.

His priority are invisible commissions.

That has always been the case.

I strongly believe he is obliged to explain to the public his reasons for not resigning.

His action cannot be taken lightly and I hope he will speak in our Parliament about this and give due respect to the public.

It may also shed some light on the prime minister’s involvement in this matter, and this might be the reason for his refusal to resign.

Include screwers in the list.

Of course, to any rational person, there would be a huge conflict of interest, and indeed I even believe that as him currently being represented by Mallia’s firm is a conflict of interest in itself, but Mallia has hardly shown any regard for ethics and the law in the last two years, has he?

[Daphne – Sheehan is not represented by Emmanuel Mallia & Associates during his trial, but by Edward Gatt of Anglu Farrugia & Associates.]