This is an experiment, of sorts.  I'm watching Bondi+ and jotting down this blog.

Carmelo Abela, MLP, is up first.  He first skates around Bondi's perfectly legitimate question about how appropriate it is for the President's son to talk about democratic deficits on the part of the Government when his own father is evidence to the contrary.

We then get a pretty sharp u-turn: first the motion is about Debono (agreeing with Bondi) then it becomes about instability and the usual mantra.   Abela then segues into a rather smart piece of sharp practice and describes the motion as one which is meant to establish whether the Government has a majority, which is not the case, in fact and in law, because what the motion will establish is whether the MLP has a majority.

Jumping subjects, we get a discussion about that strange performance of Mintoff Bland's and whether this indicates a move away from Sant, given that Mintoff was his nemesis.   Well, when I say discussion, Bondi makes a point and Abela skates around it, which is starting to become par for the course, with the Government's majority becoming the issue again, when it is not.  We got something about the MLP's inclusivity but I'm not entirely sure what this had to do with the price of eggs.

Read my lips, Abela: if the motion doesn't pass, it means that its proponents did not get a majority and it was not the Government that proposed it.  Understood?

In the context the clips boasting about the MLP's readiness to govern, Abela fell back on the usual argument, which convinced not at all, frankly.

Next up is Jason Azzopardi, PN, wonder if he'll do better.  Difficult not to, since all the MLP seem able to say is "instability, instability, instability".   Ready to govern?  Gagging to govern, more like.

Any more ads and I'll drop off.   WE have to pay the rent, I suppose, so not really fair to grumble.

And we're back.

Azzopardi was first presented with the possibility of Debono's abstention, in the face of the Brother Grim(a)'s trying to put words in Debono's mouth, and he was clear(ish) that we'll have to wait for the cat's jump on Thursday, and equally clear that the PM will not stand for conditions being imposed by anyone. 

Azzopardi roundly condemned the MLP for opportunism and Debono for being his own worst enemy, and argued the toss with Bondi about the MLP being there to achieve power, saying that this shouldn't be at all costs.

Faithful to the party line, Azzopardi then preferred to wait for Thursday than to speculate on what will happen if Debono abstains. 

Being shown a clip of Dr Chris Cardona making a funny about comparing Malta to the Costa Concordia, Azzopardi (quite rightly) condemned Cardona for the lousiest of lousy taste and then stuck to the line, let's wait for Thursday, apart from reminding us precisely which country's leaders "abandoned ship".

I have to say that Azzopardi showed sober disquiet at the clips which anyone with half a brain would have to agree portray Debono as a seriously inconsistent man, to put it mildly.

Asked whether an early election was to the PN's advantage, Azzopardi side-stepped elegantly, saying it wasn't his place to comment on this, given that he doesn't have the numbers or the knowledge.  All he could say, and there are those who would agree, that it wasn't in the country's interest.

Reacting to Michael Falzon (the Labour one) and his crack about this Government's failure in social justice, Azzopardi was fluent and boasted about the country's progress.  Confidently, he contradicted Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca's almost tearful soundbite about the country being broken to bits, with facts, figures and more facts.

This one went in favour of the PN: if you don't believe me, watch the programme for yourself.