Politics is a 24 x 7 game. It is ceaseless. Yet sometimes there is a lull in the proceedings when the rhythm of the play slows down significantly. With the summer heat sapping physical and mental energy, this is one of them. It is not, however, as deep a pause as it might have been.
If the leaders of our two major political parties went on holiday, I missed the notice of it. Maybe they didn't, though they deserve to. Each according to his mission, role and disposition, they work very hard throughout the year. Neither of them seems to have heard of, or at least likes the song "Never on Sunday".
Except during the summer. They are Sunday-sermonising rather less and at times not at all. They give themselves some relief and the rest of us a break from listening or reading endless repetition which thereby becomes tedious. It also becomes ineffectual.
Their media, however, do not seem to believe in another song oldie, "Everybody's going on a summer holiday". They will have none of that. Every item of so-called news is being delivered in precisely the same old manner.
The Nationalist media present everything that concerns the government as yet another success story.
The Labour media present the same stories in totally negative terms, horror stories, no less.
Neither side seems to appreciate that thereby they do not achieve the essential objective of party media. Which is, to penetrate the other side and the non-committed. There is, yes, the objective of keeping the faithful informed and warmed up.
But false slants are not information. And nobody, as even the boisterous know, can stay warmed up all the time.
It is the parties' privilege to choose the wrong tactics for their media. It is the thinking public's right to largely ignore them, in so far as politics and current affairs go. Otherwise, the political media do offer reasonably good entertainment.
Up north of us, summer holidays are not universal, either. In the thick heat of the Ferro Agosto the Italian Foreign Minister felt it right to try to pressurise the Malta government over our search and rescue area. Franco Frattini thinks it is too big for us to handle and forecasts that by the end of the year the Malta government will sign an agreement which, he says, has been on the negotiating table for 10 years (August 22).
Our Foreign (and Deputy Prime) Minister promptly declared that the Malta government would do no such thing.
Certainly it will not, not unless it is to Malta's benefit to do so. Clearly, given the Malta government's steadfast disagreement with it, what the Italian government proposes is anything but that.
This is an area where there should be no lull in the proceedings. It is an opportunity for the government and the opposition to collaborate, with the former taking the latter into its confidence, and the opposition rising to the occasion.
Foreign affairs, in any event, is an area where there could be a bilateral approach between the two sides of the House of Representatives.
There is no longer any divide over our relations with the European Union. If differences there are, they are not so great as to hinder collaboration on the main front of Malta's relations with the rest of the world.
Perhaps the lull in total partisan stances by the two national leaders is the best time to reflect on that.
The reaction to Sig. Frattini's unwelcome attention requires little reflection - let the two sides combine to tell him where to get off.