This should be obvious, rather than a novel proposition

Dione Borg, who has worked for years in the Nationalist Party, has written on Facebook that the party should carry out a due diligence exercise on all those who put their names forward for the leadership election. He pointed out that the members of the party will not be electing the party leader but a potential future prime minister of Malta.

That it has come to this is slightly disturbing. Because shouldn’t this be obvious? The party leader – who will actually be the Opposition leader – should not be chosen blindly by party members purely on the basis of whether they like him or not, as though they are choosing the song and singer for the Eurovision Song Contest.

And those party members, who will have the vote, should not be expected to carry out that due diligence exercise themselves, all 20,000+ of them, when they have neither the inclination or the resources to do so. It is the Nationalist Party bosses themselves which should ensure that the candidates presented to members for the vote have first been scrutinised on a proper due-diligence basis.

The Labour Party, under Keith Schembri’s and Joseph Muscat’s direction, will be carrying out that due diligence exercise on the leadership candidates as we speak. The files on Adrian Delia will have been compiled already, down to every last detail, however seemingly insignificant and whether the information is legally obtained or not, bearing in mind that they are now in government and have access to literally everything.