From here on in: a double dose of silliness and bad rep for women

Yes, these are real magazine covers (with heavily Photoshopped images). And these are also two women in their 40s who, despite being more than qualified to work, don’t do so. They don’t do any work in the house, either, because they have maids, housekeepers, chauffeurs, nannies and, in Mrs Muscat’s case, also a personal assistant.

Instead they spend their lives living off their husband (or, in Mrs Delia’s case, off her husband’s overdrafts), fussing about with outfits, make-up, hairdressers and now even Botox and surgery because in a sea of meaninglessness, appearance is all.

If they were not in a position of prominence, it wouldn’t matter to anybody except themselves, and I certainly wouldn’t be commenting. But they are in prominent positions and the bad example they are setting to girls and young Maltese women is inescapable. Their behaviour belongs to another era, long past. You no longer see it anywhere in Europe, where the wives of prominent men are expected to have their own career and to behave like grown-ups.

This kind of thing might be fine in your 20s, but two decades down the line it’s time to stop being so silly and frivolous.