I hope the police are keeping a close watch on his ‘dry-cleaning agency’ in San Gwann.

I homed straight in on that too, and planned to write about it but was derailed by a deadline elsewhere.

It struck me immediately and left me unable to read the rest of the article. I became cross and irritated and spent the rest of the day wondering whether the problem is linguistic, cultural or both tangled up together.

I wanted to pick up the phone and yell at somebody or other that when the leader of the Opposition says that he “had the courage” to turn down a corrupt man’s corrupt request, it makes him look:

1. weaker than the corrupt man;

2. frightened of the corrupt man but bravely standing up to him;

3. unable to understand that turning down corrupt requests is normal and not exceptional behaviour and that courage does not come into it;

4. like somebody who is accessible for meetings with people like that, just because they are corrupt and have money.

Why do people like that even have access in the first place? The other day, somebody really crooked who I wrote about rang me within minutes of the post going up and suggested that we “meet to discuss it”. I warned him not to ring me again and that if he did so, I would tell the police.

Why did you and I both instantly home in on that statement and find it so deeply off-putting? Because we come from the same tiny minority culture in which “kelli l-kuragg nghidlu le” is considered risible, pathetic and against all the norms.

The Nationalist Party DOES NOT UNDERSTAND how deeply it alienates people from that ‘tiny’ minority group, with these statements which flag up and highlight cultural differences. The trouble is that the tiny minority group is not so tiny that it didn’t help lose it the general election.

I have learned through long experience that everything has to be spelled out, John.

Medical doctor = ‘tabib’
Medical specialist = ‘specjalist’

You can shorten the list, Daphne, and delete medical specialists. They are already there, by definition, as medical doctors.

Take the following statement by Simon Busuttil: “I am proud that I had the courage to say no to Gaffarena when I met him before the election upon his request, and he asked me to issue a permit for the illegally built petrol station.”

“Proud” and “I had the courage to say no” This would be normal behaviour in a normal country, which this clearly is not.

Of course you say no to a request to be complicit in an illegality. Does he want to be awarded the VC for this great act of valour or what?

I cannot imagine the Leader of the Opposition of any other EU country coming out with such a declaration.

What he should have said was words to the effect of “naturally I told the sleaze bag to fuck off.”

It is becoming exceedingly difficult for me to find anything in common with anyone here.

Ahjar bjajt Londra.

medical doctors
medical specialists
dentists
accountants
lawyers
notaries
architects and civil engineers
full stop

No need to apologise. It’s just that I spend an inordinate amount of time at this end, changing people’s acronyms into the full name and wondering why they write that way if they wish, presumably, to be understood. And yours foxed me.