COOKING GEESE

The legality or otherwise of Mr John Dalli's actions or inactions in connection with the matter that brought about his resignation, even if he seems to be having doubts about whether he resigned or not (in this he is unique, as in being the only one) are a matter for the Attorney-General and the courts, if it comes to it, so let's leave that aside for the moment.

That said, there are still political issues by the bucketload surrounding this whole affair.

For instance, according to the Leader of the Opposition, Dalli phoned him to tell him about his resignation mere minutes after he had closed the door behind him on leaving Barroso's office, having been told to jump or be pushed.

Am I surprised? No, quite frankly, not at all. Dalli has been virtually ubiquitous on One TV or whatever it is that Super One calls itself, spreading doom and gloom with something approaching lugubrious relish. Whether this is because he feels mortally offended because his leadership bid was not given the unanimous welcome he would have wanted is a question that only he can answer.

Equally, only he can answer how he expects to look any real Nationalist in the eye (not the ones whose confessions he takes, those don't count) after having asserted on Super One mere days ago that the Nationalist Party no longer exists.

The only people who say this, incidentally, are the people whose confessions Dalli takes, and given their standards, this is hardly a ringing endorsement of the validity of Dalli's smug remark to the Cini/Musumeci double act.

Clearly, Dalli identifies closely with the Opposition, and the feeling appears to be mutual, to the extent that it was to the leader of the Labour Party that Dalli made one of the his first calls after his fall from grace.

The Labour Party, as a result, has a major political problem on its hands: all its heroes are turning out to have credentials that are less than stellar, to put it mildly.

Dalli, a prime example of the way Labour uses "lapsed" Nationalists for partisan reasons (fair enough, if I were in their shoes I would too) has been adjudged to be unfit for the office he held up to a week ago.

As of today, all we know is that this is because he was found wanting when his behaviour, as brought to light in the course of OLAF's investigation, was measured against European standards. As of tomorrow, when the A-G has concluded his consideration of the matter, things might, or might not, be different.

The fact remains, though, that on the political level, Dalli's goose has been cooked, and by association, Labour's stewpot now has more than its fair share of gristle and rancid meat simmering and bubbling under the surface.

Just to feed the paranoia that seems to have gripped various people, this blog was dictated by the Grand Panjandrum of the Evil Oligarchy, who took his information from Room Thirteen in Castille, where the phone and email hacking equipment is stored.