I could have sworn that slick diplomacy is one of the very few essential ingredients required to make the grade as politician. However, renegade MP Franco Debono (I'm wary of actually using the prefix 'Nationalist') seems really keen to prove this quaint notion of mine wrong.

I find myself growing more and more perplexed as to the antagonistic political methodology that this gentleman is favouring. Without going into the merits of Dr Debono's actual political proposals, the strategy he chose to use makes him hell bent on political suicide.

From the (admittedly second-hand) political knowledge I gained through the years I've always believed that the most successful politicians are those who smile courteously at their "enemies" while making their points in an elegant manner.

This is not to say that a great politician will shy away from telling you exactly why s/he believes you're a scoundrel of the highest order. On the contrary, he will do so most effectively while appearing to be doing nothing worse than passing the time of day with you. (Aside: I'm tired of doing the "s/he" thing, from now on you may assume I'm including both genders).

Think of Winston Churchill's famed wit when confronted with awkward situations involving his political nemeses. "A modest man, who has much to be modest about" – this, reputedly, about his deputy PM Clement Atlee. "He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened" – talking about then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

None of these niceties for Dr Debono, however. Since he's exploded back on the news in the past couple of days, it's been back to his usual brusque technique: "let's try a spot of holding the government to ransom and see where that gets me". If only he'd add a touch of wit to his kidnapping exercise, we'd probably all look at him rather more kindly.

Instead, we get the following gruff declarations that make him sound like he's some character on a Lucky Luke movie or a bad Bud Spencer/Terence Hill comedy, waiting to declare duel upon anyone hapless enough to disagree with him.

"I challenged them." Them being Malta's cabinet – ever so classy.

"I made it clear to the Prime Minister that I will not accept the budget vote before the debate on the justice motion." Translation: What I mean is that I will bring the country to a standstill if I don't get my way.

"I think I gave them enough time." Cue opening bars of Dies Irae?

Besides being a politician, Dr Debono is also a successful criminal lawyer. Diplomacy was considered one of the biggest things at law school, something they made sure we grasped pretty fast. Which makes me doubly surprised that Dr Debono does not belong to the Winston Churchill school of thought.

But then again, Dr Debono is no Winston Churchill I guess.