When the cameras aren’t there, it’s a different story

The Prime Minister was all big smiles and hugs when his wife emerged from the water last Saturday after a three-hour swim in a full wet-suit, accompanied by three police and military vessels and a small army of minders at the public expense.

That’s because the media cameras and a small audience were there.

But as this unexpected photograph shows, when Mrs Muscat dived into the water to begin her swim, it was a different story. Two Armed Forces of Malta personnel, one of her two state-paid personal assistants, Maria, and her daughters watched her closely as she set off.

But the Prime Minister was more interested in something that another man had pointed out in the distance. He and one of his favourite backbench MPs, Deo Debattista, both of them wearing matching Panama hats – why was he even there? – stood with their backs to Mrs Muscat as she launched herself into the water, oblivious to her big moment.

That Panama hat was nowhere in evidence, let alone on the Prime Minister’s head, when the cameras arrived on shore. As a seasoned media operator, he knows that the press would kill for a good picture of him wearing one of those things right now, and that it will be used by his rivals in the electoral campaign.