ALL OK THEN

I was going to dedicate this installment of the feelings of Little Me to a bit of a raspberry in the general direction of that quite prolific writer, Mr Martin Scicluna, who produces with the backing of a think-tank with which I am not familiar, though I am sure they externalise thoughts of great pith and moment regularly.

The raspberry was to take into account the somewhat supercilious-sounding piece Scicluna put together, bemoaning the demonisation of Mintoff, because, don't you know, the old buffer wasn't all that bad, this is just those mildly peculiar Nationalists scare-mongering, you see? Scicluna feels able to say this not because he lived here in those "not all that bad" days, don't you see, but because he read the reports from the comfort of his office in, I believe, Whitehall, no doubt over a cup of Earl Grey and a chocolate digestive.

Oh, so that's all ok then, the Seventies and Eighties were all sweetness and light.

But then I read the news that Mr Roderick Galdes M.P. (Lab.), Labour-appointed member of the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority Board and employee of that same august Authority, had been found to have been granted a development permit that was not in accordance with the relevant policies.

Dear, dear me, tut, tut and again, tut, what a scandal. I'm sure that the FAA, the Ramblers Association, the Huggers of Trees and all the other assorted groups who have the environment so close to their heart are up in arms, demanding the immediate resignation, coupled with the hanging, drawing and quartering, followed by keelhauling, of the hapless Galdes.

On the other hand, perhaps not, because he's not a Nationalist MP or activist or otherwise connected with the horrid Government, so that's all ok then. Never let it be said that two weights and measures apply in this country, will you? It's the same for all pro-PN people, they are dumped on from great heights, while if some pro-MLP bod is found in the same position, well, we'll forget all about that won't we?

For instance, what if I were to tell you that someone not a million miles from Mr Galdes has benefitted, and quite rightly, from a remuneration system that lets him get his salary from his employer, his honorarium as an MP and his honorarium as a member of, say, MEPA's Board, in much the same way as Ministers have been so strongly maligned for doing?

Would you jump and down and scream and shout and run about?

No, of course not, because it's not a pro-PN bloke we're talking about.