The first time I interviewed a politician, it was Michael Falzon in 1989

I had a sudden flashback to it after reading this comment he posted beneath his own twisted article in Malta Today. He was Minister of Public Works or whatever it was called at the time – and probably busy stashing away that money in Switzerland, though we shall never know now – and I had been sent by The Sunday Times of Malta to interview him.

The subject was the deteriorating living conditions of people in Sliema, with houses being knocked down all over and replaced with flats. Building work was completely unregulated at the time, and builders would just dump their piles of lime-dust and cement all over the pavements, run their JCBs all over the street and chuck stones from upper storeys into the road below or onto lorries. It was chaos and Michael Falzon’s outfit wasn’t doing anything about it.

His reply? “People are so arrogant these days. They complain about everything and they’re never happy.” Or words to that effect. The interview, a first for Malta – yes, we were that backward – ran with the title, over two pages, AN ERA OF ARROGANT CITIZENS.

Falzon did not speak to me again for a long time, and has regarded me with deep suspicion ever since.

A very arrogant citizen: he hides half a million euros in a private bank in Switzerland while he is a cabinet minister, then spends his Sunday mornings pontificating on the radio about politicians, politics and what everybody else is doing wrong.