The Minister for the Economy takes a break from the Stable Bar/Medasia Playa/Level 22

Here he is at the Hamrun festa this afternoon (in stripes). You’d imagine he’d be mobbed by reporters asking him awkward questions about corruption, but no. They’re trained to wait for press conferences and official events. That’s a damned shame – though I’m told that in some cases it’s the newspapers themselves that frown on their reporters ‘stepping out of line’ as they see it, and hunting down their quarry while ‘relaxing’.

However, I got my best story out of the Economy Minister by cornering him at the Stable while he was drinking there on Friday afternoon. Of course, this burnt that particular bridge, and there is no way on earth that sleaze Jason Azzopardi, who owns the place and stands behind the bar, is going to allow me in again – but as those kinds of people like to say, kien il-vera wertit.