How does the prime minister define corruption, I wonder

He set the stage when he led by example, renting his own family car to the state for his own official use, elevating John Dalli to his right hand and removing Police Commissioner John Rizzo (or is he going to blame his underling Manuel Mallia for that?), appointing Manuel Mallia to his cabinet, presiding over the most massive Cronyism Festival this island has ever seen, that mess with the power station contract and then that other mess with the government standing as guarantor, the Café Premier scandal, Marco Gaffarena’s sticky deals, all those friends and relations placed on the public payroll, dropping the case for repossession of Australia Hall so that instead of the public getting it back the Labour Party kept it and made money off it, and so much more.

Yet here the prime minister is, trying to speak with conviction about his Big Fight Against Corruption and How He Will Not Tolerate It.

A parallel universe, indeed – he must be one of those antiquated people who define corruption as a brown envelope full of cash paid for a specific illicit favour, as with the Appeals Court judges who accepted money from a drug-trafficker.

How simplistic. Oh, I forget – maybe all those things I described are above are not corrupt but liberal.