Prime Minister’s consultant and Law Commissioner in humiliating Facebook spat last night

When I argued back in March 2013 that you could tell exactly what sort of government it was going to be by the Prime Minister’s choice of appointees, and the way he was appointing them as though he didn’t give a stuff what kind of characters they were or what the consequences would be, people said ‘Give him/them a chance’.

I couldn’t understand why they said that, because the way I look at it – and I imagine most sensible people do the same – those are the choices that say everything about what kind of government you’re going to run.

I still say that Prime Minister Gonzi’s decision to solve one of his major problems on the home front by giving in to John Dalli’s request to be made European Commissioner spoke volumes about a fatal flaw that would, in the end, undermine everything else including his massive achievements during some of the toughest times for the economy. The damage John Dalli would do was entirely foreseeable. Sending him there was a short-term solution to a personal/domestic problem that caused a huge long-term difficulties for the European Commission – which are still being felt today in Giovanni Kessler’s tribulations with OLAF and significant corruption/non-prosecution concerns back home in Malta – and led to major negative stories in the international press even now, almost four years after Dalli was forced out.

Prime Minister Muscat’s choice of appointees has been largely disastrous from the outset. Three years ago, I thought he was going it to insult the public and disparage and undermine the offices and positions to which he appointed these people. But three years down the line, I have come to the conclusion that it is actually down to cavalier ignorance and disregard for the accumulated consequences of choices, which have now heavily undermined his government.

Muscat could have easily appointed sound, smart, decent, sane and gifted people to high office and that would have won him respect and ensured a stable government for 10 years at least. But he chose to champion a mix of corrupt individuals, marriage cheats, chancers, talentless opportunists, and even, as you will see below, people of unsound mind. I think that last bit is a fair assessment to make because there is nothing psychologically normal about the behaviour of the Prime Minister’s justice reform consultant and Law Commissioner, below.

This is extremely worrying.