Sick of Franco and sicker still of Jeffrey

This was my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, yesterday.

You’re all probably as sick of the sound of his name and the sight of his face as I am, but he’s put himself in the limelight where he thinks he belongs, so we just have to hold our noses, take a deep breath and talk about Franco Debono. Again.

Now he’s a man of principle, and not a man who wanted a job and didn’t get it. And the Labour army of internet elves are out there and egging him on, with plenty of references to his family jewels, by which I don’t mean his mother’s earrings.

What short memories we have. The situation is identical to all the problems Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando put the government through, holding the country hostage to his own hysterics.

There’s no difference between the way Debono is behaving now and the way Pullicino Orlando behaved right up until the moment he got what he wanted and finally relaxed a bit.

Their arrogant behaviour on television, with no attempt to conceal the vicious anger that comes spewing forth at the slightest perceived provocation, is the same.

The only difference is that Pullicino Orlando does not engage with his mobile telephone, perhaps because he had a more fortunate upbringing and knows, at least on paper, the rudiments of good manners.

As for that phone of Debono’s, probably the only reason he’s keeping it on during television discussions and interviews is because somebody is prompting him about his performance and giving him live feedback on what to do and say.

My conviction that he is working alone is no longer as strong as it was. The vultures are circling in plain sight, and one of them is flying in for a press conference about his work in Brussels (it’s only a coincidence, of course).

Even Pullicino Orlando’s mask is coming off. But I knew it would. His calm behaviour in the last few weeks hasn’t been real. Apply a bit of pressure and it’s back to basics, with his true nature and intent on full display.

The clue was on his Facebook wall days ago when, as is his tedious habit, he raided his internet book of quotations yet again and posted something about the importance of knowing when you are defeated.

“Now even Jeffrey has turned against Franco,” an acquaintance told me.

“No,” I said. “He’s referring to Lawrence Gonzi. And he won’t be able to keep up the pretence much longer, because the temptation to join in and back Franco will within days prove too hard to resist.”

Okay, so maybe I’ve become the resident expert in difficult men (I was going to say crazy guys, but thought better not), but there you go. Pullicino Orlando’s resolve is cracking already.

The signs are all over Malta Today, which is once more quoting what its ‘sources’ have divulged (selectively) about things said in private in the Nationalist Party’s parliamentary group.

And Jeffrey can’t keep his anger off his Facebook wall. He’s now flipping out because his buddy Franco is being pilloried all over the internet.

But why wouldn’t he be, Jeffrey? You and he should thank God you don’t live in your spiritual homes – Italy in Franco’s case, Britain in yours – because you would have been torn to shreds and hung out to dry, and by the broadsheets, not the blogosphere or social media.

“I confess to being heartbroken by the present political situation. It would seem to be an opportune moment for the Nationalist Party to ask itself what it has gained from the orchestrated, vile and unjustified attacks on Guido De Marco, John Dalli, Jesmond Mugliett, Jean Pierre Farrugia, Robert Arrigo, me, John Bundy, Franco Debono, Robert Musumeci……and others, by those posing as paladins of GonziPN in the past five years,” Pullicino Orlando has now written on his Facebook wall.

Guido De Marco is dead, and bringing him up now is very unpleasant. So let’s stick with the rest.

Perhaps poor Jeffrey should reread his list and wonder what’s wrong with it, or rather, with the people in it. Except for Jean Pierre Farrugia, who he has included for reasons that are mysterious to me, they all have a tainted record but worse than that, they are of dubious character. Yes, Jeff – that includes you.

They are not out in the cold and handled with a bargepole because they were heavily criticised in the press by people like me, who deploy the advantages of living in a free country rather than North Korea to say when they don’t like somebody and why.

They are out in the cold because of their own choices and behaviour, but when you’ve got that kind of personality, where it’s all about you and you’re always right and the means justify the end, then you’re either incapable of recognising your own serious mistakes or you just solve the problem by projecting them onto somebody else.

John Dalli – honestly, Jeffrey, you cannot be serious.

Maybe Jeffrey thinks that new laws should be written to allow me and others to criticise only Labour politicians and leave Nationalist politicians, or former politicians, untouched.

The prime minister, operating in a situation where most of us would have been unable to stop ourselves affixing Franco Debono to the ceiling or plastering him to a wall, has continued to behave with superhuman restraint and decency.

He said to his parliamentary group that he has enough material among the thousands of emails and text messages which Franco Debono sent him at all hours of the day and night to respond to him in kind. But he won’t.

And Franco Debono is taking advantage of that fact, as such people do with those who are decently behaved.

They rely on their opponent’s decency and good manners to enable their own bad behaviour and further their own abysmal objectives.

If I were the prime minister I would simply release all that information and put an end to this charade here and now. He doesn’t even have to release the content of the messages; all he has to do is make public a list of the thousands of messages and the time of night at which they were sent.

People like Franco and Jeffrey only understand one kind of language. The trouble is that the prime minister doesn’t speak that language and so they ride roughshod over him.

Instead of admiring him for being the better man, they despise him for not standing up to them and flattening them hard. But I bet he’s really tempted right now.