CLAYMAN

One of the first times I came across Edward, now Professor, Edward Scicluna was during the 1987 Election, when at the Hal-Far Counting Hall.

I recall him being given a friendly scolding by Lino Briguglio after the former predicted that the latter's Partit Demokratiku Malti would hold the balance of power between the big two.

This was the first time the 50%+1 rule had been brought into play, after Labour's defiance of the electorate in 1981 when the letter of the law had been allowed to overcome its spirit.

Scicluna was invited roundly by Lino to take a coffee, though in less complimentary terms, which might not have been the respect due to an august member of the Electoral Commission, but the two were old friends, so no offence was meant or taken.

Since then, all of us have moved on, Scicluna to professorial rank and thence to membership of the European Parliament under the Labour flag.

He's since made it known that he intends to contest the General Elections, giving Labour another super-brain about which to boast. This will also give Joseph Muscat something of a problem if and when it comes to appointing a Minister of Finance, but this won't worry him, as it would be a nice problem to have, along with who is going to be Justice and Gozo. Apparently, it's only the South at has a shoo-in Minister, in the form of Silvio Parnis.

Lucky South.

But is Scicluna so much the bee's knees when it comes to matters of the brain, in truth?

Look at this telling line from his recent interview with the Sunday Times: "Ten questions were asked, fifty one answers were given".

That the shallow, the facile, the easily-impressed, the one-nugget-less-than-a-Happy Meal brigade should trot this stupidity out on their FaceBook statuses and elsewhere is one thing, but for this grey eminence to regurgitate it as well is another thing entirely. Scicluna is either as IQ-bereft as the others, or he is willing to toe the party-line to the extent that he doesn't mind looking totally idiotic.

Either way, one has to wonder why he expects anyone to vote for him in the light of this dictum.