And as I said to you earlier, it’s taken six days and not six months. A week after the scandal broke they were already in a situation where they can no longer govern. It doesn’t mean they are not going to stay in government.

The Labour Party couldn’t govern between 1981 and 1987. But that didn’t stop it staying in government.

It’s over for them, and they know it. That’s why they are lashing out and doing strange and weird things.

I’m going to explain exactly what I meant. There is a tipping-point at which public opinion shifts permanently against the government, after which there is no going back. In this case, I thought it would take six months max of bickering and fighting in the press and the public arena for public opinion to shift. In reality, it took six days because people grasped the full extent of the scandal almost immediately.

You cannot force governments out. A government in this situation simply cannot govern so it is faced with two options: call an election and have done with it, as Sant did, or drag things on and use the time to make hay, knowing you are facing a lost cause anyway but ‘majtezwel’ use the time in between to make money, not caring a jot that public opprobrium will escalate to furious proportions because to you, the money is worth more. That’s what Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s government did. (He wasn’t into money but his people certainly were.)

I think this government will go with the latter option, because Muscat sees things only in money-making terms, however illicit or unethical, and will seek to hang on for the full five years + six months permitted by law.

It’s either that or he has to go within six months. There is no other choice. And in the meantime, those six months will be impossibly difficult for everyone. If he doesn’t call an election in six months, he’s going to stay there for the full 5 years + six months.

You did

Daphne, just keep them coming. You are a star :)

The Labour Party has NO respect for public opinion and no self-respect either. We’ve been there before.

The only reason Alfred Sant called an election after just 22 months was because he had a mere one-seat majority and Mintoff was sitting in it. Otherwise he would have carried on.

I know enough about those people, having had to write about them since I was 25, to work out that they will cling on no matter what – but then they will lose the election.

Must have taken a lot of money and boardroom planning. Building a swimming pool on the Titanic, more like.

Here is our Ian Borg (attached), reliable, tested, and honest.