In close-up, this outfit is actually quite distressing

I could spend ages explaining in great detail why the lurid earrings and bag are horrendous in and of themselves, let alone with a dress like that, but I don’t think Mrs Muscat’s image consultant will be listening.

The dress itself is an absolute disaster. Now that I have finally seen it in proper close-up, I don’t know where to begin.

Why is this kind of thing allowed to happen to her? Isn’t anyone in charge? Or do the people in charge have even worse ideas than she does?

This is the prime minister’s wife. At the president’s ball. She clearly takes great trouble with her appearance. She spends lots of money on it. She is not somebody who doesn’t bother. And it goes so badly wrong.

The shoes don’t show in this close-up, but they were sandals, and worse than that, her little toes were hanging off the sides.

She is also really angry at her husband in this picture, and he is seething with irritation to the point where he is about to explode – but let’s not get into that. Most of us have been there. It’s just that most of us are not the prime minister and his wife making a grand entrance in front of the photographers.