BY HIS PRAISE

Everyone and her brother is getting in on the "let's comment on Franco Debono" act, so I suppose I shouldn't be any different. There's a concurrent comedy playing, it's called the "let's bash Lou Bondi" show, where it seems that a great swathe of citizens have become unable to distinguish between the message and the messenger, finding it easier to shoot the messenger than argue the message.

But Lou is a big boy and he can take care of himself.

The most telling line in the reports about Dr Franco Debono's speech in the House, to my mind, was the one telling us that the Labour MPs applauded him. I didn't hear his speech myself, preferring to celebrate my wife's thirty-second wedding anniversary with a delectable snack at Mo's in Victoria, but from all accounts, he touched on a plethora of subjects, not all of which were immediately clear as to the extent to which they were germane to the issue under discussion.

Which leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the Opposition were not applauding his oratorial skills but simply the fact that he was dumping on his own Government. I am fortified in this conclusion by the fact that Labour were so transparently eager to let him have as much time as he wanted, a concession I doubt they would have made had they thought he was going to sing the Government's praises.

On the subject of praises, when Debono looks down the comments board, as one does, I'd suggest that he applies some moderation when assessing the level of praise he's getting. When some of those characters praise you, you know you're doing something wrong.

Debono's little arrangement about length of time to speak let him have a swing at everyone who seems to have irritated him. The PM, the Minister for Justice and the whole PN Exec were lined up in his sights at some point or other, by all accounts, but the crack that had me in stitches, even at second-hand, was the one about how public broadcasting has become worse than it was in the Eighties.

This was particularly amusing because the Hon. Gent was no but twelve, I'm told, when his party was elected in 1987, so the extent to which he has the slightest idea what was what in those days is, if you'll forgive me, insignificant.

But then, this is someone who, on his FaceBook page, before he rendered it inaccessible, said that he has suffered equally under the PN as he had under the MLP. You know, being an elected member of parliament, a Parliamentary Assistant, a well-known lawyer, this is such a terrible burden to bear.

It's almost as bad as being a European Commissioner.

I suspect the PN side didn't kick up a fuss about him speaking for so long for a pretty good reason, when you think about it.