I didn't think I'd have to do this, but I'm going to have to "Janet & John" this whole blogging thing, aren't I?

So, here goes: blogging is not reporting news.   Neither is it a scholarly exercise aimed at giving a balanced analysis of any given set of facts. 

It is not, emphatically not, subject to the rules of balance, objectivity and neutrality, and even more emphatically not subject to these rules as interpreted by the Broadcasting Authority, that venerated institution (venerated as long as it is sticking up for Labour, anyway) that seems to adopt an arithmetical formula when assessing objectivity.

So when assorted Lil'Elves and Peculiar Pundits bitch and moan about how biased I am, how I don't play fair, how I am anti- this or pro- that, they are missing the point utterly.  In this blog, and for that matter, in my Beck column (when I write the book I'll explain the how and why of it in more detail) I am simply expressing an opinion, a stupid opinion, if you like, a skewed one, an idiosyncratic one, I don't really know and, more to the point, I don't much care, because at the end of the day, it is only one man's opinion.

It is telling, I trust sensible readers will grasp, that Labour's mainstream politicians, used to the give-and-take of comment and opinion, don't seem much worried by what I write.  It is yon Lil'Elves and Peculiar Pundits who seem to be exercised by my thoughts, not the people who count.

I care even less about annoying certain other people, however, because I have this moral conviction that the ones who feel annoyed are the ones who comprehend, even if only subliminally, the fundamental justifications for my opinion about them.  They then transfer their annoyance at these justifications onto me, shooting the messenger, as it were.

Consequently, when Pullicino Orlando and Debono and Mugliett and Musumeci and whoever go on Super One to bitch and moan about how nasty I've been to them (even if, like Mugliett and Musumeci, I doubt they've got much of a mention by me) underneath all their bluster and bravado is, basically, one quite painful truth that concerns them.  They were, at least the way I see it, disloyal to their Prime Minister and to their party and, forgive me, they don't like my reaction, because it hits home.

Well, tough.  Their problem, not mine.

Now for a second point, while on the subject of these people and those of their ilk.

It is a lie, straight and unmitigated, and the people who utter it are liars, that I form part of some sinister group of writers directed by anyone within the PN. 

Or within anywhere else, for that matter.

I have asked the Police to take action for perjury against someone who said that on oath and I have no hesitation in repeating it: when Pullicino Orlando (wearing burnt orange trousers or not, drunk on a bar leading a chorus of Labour worthies or not) or Debono or whoever say I am anyone's tool, they are liars.

Now sue me for calling you a liar, if you dare.