Many successful men are single, or live with other men. And only bullies and abusers keep their women behind them.

You can tell what sort of person Adrian Delia is by the sentiments of those who support him. Apparently, successful men are all heterosexual, in a relationship, and what’s more, they keep their women behind them. The women are also “strong” because their men need to rest on them without their support cracking under the weight.

But the women mustn’t look strong. They must start out short (because tall is a challenge to male dominance), starve themselves to the point of extinction (to look fragile and unable to assert themselves), and wear skinny jeans and crippling shoes so that like Japanese ladies in the 16th century they can only hobble for a few paces at a time (signalling vulnerability).

They mustn’t work but they must wear expensive items of jewellery and clothes with Big Obvious Labels (signalling their husband’s wealth, or rather, as in this particular case, debts). And they must look bullied, harried and subdued so that everyone knows that their husband is the macho boss.

Enough of this backward nonsense. You’d never believe it’s the 21st century in Malta. Xi dwejjaq ta’ pajjiż ta’ wara l-muntanji (jew iżolat f’nofs baħar). And then, when they find themselves confronted with a really strong woman, they all go bleating off on Twitter and Facebook, screeching about witches and how they should be controlled.

Here is my message to all those who are in their 20s and reading this: pack a suitcase and get out, as quickly as you can, if only just for a few years. Because if you don’t, the danger is that you will end up thinking this kind of thing is normal.