There is not really any need for anything to be happening between them to make this a story.

It is enough that the cabinet minister is carrying his personal assistant’s bags while she drags him round Oxford Street shopping for clothes for herself and maybe for her daughters.

It is totally inappropriate. And that’s just in respect of their official roles.

Of course it is also highly inappropriate because they are both married to other people, but that’s a secondary issue, and it’s largely for his wife to deal with. I don’t think there are many women around who would be thrilled to see their husband behaving like his personal assistant’s bidillu, as she drags him round the shops for clothes and he carries her bags. They wouldn’t have been too thrilled at the body language in that airport photograph either – it doesn’t speak of sex but of something much worse, comfortable over-familiarity.

If it was official, what was the purpose of the visit and did we pay for her accommodation or did they share to save us money.

I see your point. If there is anything happening between them at least we have a good chance that we can read about it here.

Kemm hu minn taghna l-ministru.

Maltese society operates in a separate universe.

The reason that no cabinet minister anywhere else in the free and democratic world is ever snapped shopping for clothes for his personal assistant and carrying her bags (at least she seems to have paid the bill) – whether it is at Primark or Prada – is because they know why they can’t risk being photographed doing this, and why they shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. It has absolutely nothing to do with “being one of us” or “down to earth”.

Many women have bosses. They don’t expect their boss to go shopping for clothes with them and to carry their bags, and their boss wouldn’t even consider it. In practically all cases, the situation would not even arise, because you would never have that level of familiarity where the personal assistant treats the boss like a chum and tells him “ejja mieghi sa Primark”.

Malta is a social freak-show.

No, they are not friends.

He is a cabinet minister and she is his personal assistant.

Even if they were friends in a previous life, they cannot be friends now.

It is completely and wholly inappropriate for a cabinet minister to go shopping for clothes in London – or anywhere else – with his personal assistant, more so to buy clothes for HER, and to carry her shopping bags for her as though he is the personal assistant and she the cabinet minister.

It is also inappropriate – and do I really need to spell this out? – for a married man to go clothes-shopping with a married woman, and to carry her bags for her, as though they are the couple in the equation.

At least it is reassuring that she appears to be paying for her own bill, instead of having him pay it for her, because she is standing at the till while he stands behind her like a bored husband with her bags.

Malta is so primitive it is beyond astonishing. Imagine having to explain these things.

What do partisan politics have to do with it? I would have said exactly the same had it been a Nationalist cabinet minister.

Not very sharp, are you. He’s not there to buy clothes for himself. He’s there to accompany his personal assistant, who is buying the clothes, and he is carrying her bags.

Le.

Your move.