One can only admire John Guillaumier’s sense of humour and bravado type of letters he inundates us with but if that is another swipe and bitterness of mind towards the Church’s past influence on the Maltese way of life, yes, with all the warts, scruples and queer petty behaviour of the man in the street, those were the days! We lived happier and simpler lives and it was also a time when one was proud to be Maltese. No longer.

I have also detected that he used the adjectives oppressive and repressed. In all my experience, I can recall dozens of spells during which my letters accumulated to three or even seven consecutive ones being unpublished. This paper has admitted this several times and sentences like “To grin and bear it”, “interrupted debate”, “he enjoys a privileged niche” etc. were commonplace. That’s what I call suppressio veri.

In the meantime, his procession goes on.

Restraining him is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand (Prov. 27:16).