Tiffullawx, nies – don’t crush the hero with your enthusiasm

The new leader of the Nationalist Party went down to the woods today, and was in for a big surprise. Today’s party-club visit was to what the Nationalist Party likes to think of as its “fortizza Nazzjonalista” – my home town, Sliema.

The turn-out, as you can see, was absolutely pathetic. Undeterred, he walked back down Prince of Wales Road – apologies, Manwel Dimech Street – walked unmolested across the Ferries and headed towards Café Giorgio for a proper coffee, as he only drinks Nescafe when he mixes with “the simple Maltese” in village clubs and pretends to share what he thinks of as their simple pleasures.

The photographs are those chosen by the Nationalist Party media for publication, which means they are the best available. The Nationalist Party’s two members for Sliema, Karol Aquilina and Marlene Farrugia – at law, and according to a ruling of the Courts of Justice, Dr Farrugia won her seat for the Nationalist Party – were conspicuous by their absence. Both of them are grievously at odds with Delia.

Familiar Sliema PN faces were absent too. The only recognisable faces were those of Sliema candidate and Delia convert Ivan Bartolo, the ubiquitous lackeys Jean Pierre and Kristy Debono, and Robert Arrigo, who actually won the Sliema seat which Aquilina then took in a casual election after Arrigo, who had also won a seat in another constituency, vacated it.