Defsa update

At the Special Olympics opening ceremony in Los Angeles, during the standard procession of teams and contingents round the stadium, the Maltese contingent was led by Michelle, Soleil and Etoile Muscat walking at the forefront.

Was Mrs Renzi leading the Italian contingent with her children? No. Was Samantha Cameron leading the United Kingdom contingent with hers (and she had a disabled son)? No. Was Francois Hollande’s latest mistress leading the French contingent with any two or three of a number of random children? No.

Maybe the wives and children of other heads of government round the world led their country’s contingents round the stadium, and I failed to recognise them. But I somehow think they did not.

Who paid for Mrs Muscat’s return flights to Los Angeles and those of her children? The Marigold Foundation? The government of Malta?

Did they fly cattle class or first class?

This last point is relevant even if she claims that her husband paid for their tickets with his private funds (she can’t pay for her own because she doesn’t work). The prime minister is on a salary which makes three first class return tickets to Los Angeles unaffordable for a sole breadwinner.

Maybe he used the disposable income he gets from renting the family car to the government: this year’s €7,000 should just about cover it.

But the most important point is: what the blazes does she think she’s up to? If she’s bored out of her mind just being the spare wheel to a busy husband, she should get a proper job of her own, a paying one which would allow us to take her seriously.

Right now, she’s coming across as a freeloader on a five-year jaunt who’s bringing up her children really, really badly by making them believe that this is what real life is all about and that they are special and important and have to be the centre of attention all the time.

It’s a recipe for disaster, but she seems to lack the life experience and insight to see where that particular road is leading.

And if all this is about a personal election campaign come 2018 and plans to be one of the Labour Party’s star candidates, she should come clean about it now.

One final note: it’s in really bad taste to use physically and mentally disabled children to bolster your public image rather than theirs. It’s crass, vulgar and really cynical.

I hate to have to draw comparisons but in this case, they really should be made. Catherine and Lawrence Gonzi have been committed to the cause of disabled children and adults for years, particularly Mrs Gonzi who has dedicated herself to work in this field because she has a mentally ill brother (she has been open about it), while her husband was instrumental in setting up the Downs Syndrome Association of Malta.

Neither of them played the Princess of Wales card. Damn shame there aren’t any landmine victims in one of Malta’s former colonies, into whose eyes Mrs Muscat can gaze empathetically while wearing a fetching khaki outfit.

The photographs were taken for release to the press before the Special Olympics contingent left Malta.