I'm starting to wonder whether the mayor of Żebbuġ, Gozo, has lately been reading too many books on Roman history when they tended to chop off heads on the least pretext of guilt. True to some Roman emperors, the list of things being chopped off on our Qbajjar promenade keeps increasing.

After the colourful shady canopies were chopped off for showing a little rust, it was the turn of faulty footlights that disappeared under little moulds of concrete.

Next it was the lamp posts that were culled of two of three light bulbs for daring to go off.

Now it's the turn of the benches, which are in sets of two. One bench had a wooden plank broken, so the whole thing was wrenched off leaving one bench shorn of its partner.

One thing I'll say of him, he's consistent.

The picture also shows the state of attention the trees are getting. However, I don't dare suggest any pruning as one can guess what the result would be!